AIGHT 
AMERICA 


A    CALL 

fO -NATIONAL 
4~  SERVICE 


FRANCES ';#:  K 


GIFT  OF 


OUR  NATIONAL  PROBLEMS 


STRAIGHT  AMERICA 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •    BOSTON  •   CHICAGO  -   DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY  •   CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 
TORONTO 


STRAIGHT  AMERICA 


A  CALL  TO  NATIONAL 
SERVICE 


BY 
FRANCES   A.  KELLOB 


THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1916 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,    1916, 

BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  June,  1916. 


Notfooofc  $re00 

J.  S.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


TO 

THE  PRESIDENT-ELECT  OF  1916 


337751 


CONTENTS 


I.  WHAT  is  THE  MATTER  WITH  AMERICA  ?  1 

II.  AMERICANISM 21 

III.  THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN       ...  43 

IV.  AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS      ...  91 
V.  THE  POPULAR  VOTE    ....  127 

VI.  NATIONAL  UNITY 153 


vii 


STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

CHAPTER  I 
WHAT  is  THE  MATTER  WITH  AMERICA? 

FOR  the  first  time  in  its  history,  America, 
broadly  speaking,  is  consciously  ashamed. 
However  divided  we  may  be  upon  pre- 
paredness, neutrality  in  thought  has  not 
brought  peace  of  mind.  We  find  our- 
selves making  explanations  and  apologies. 
In  the  midst  of  unprecedented  prosperity, 
we  are  restless  and  dissatisfied.  Smolder- 
ing in  the  hearts  of  men  is  desire  for 
change,  fermenting  in  their  minds  is  a 
demand  for  national  leadership.  The 
situation  defies  accurate  analysis.  It  is 
not  that  we  want  war  or  that  we  favor 
militarism.  Rather  it  is  that  our  powers 
are  dormant,  our  aspirations  unexpressed, 
our  beliefs  unformulated,  our  attitude 
misrepresented,  our  motives  misunder- 


2  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

stood,  and  our  presence  in  the  world's 
conflict  unnoted. 

We  sit  supinely  under  insult,  injury, 
and  violation  of  rights  and  laws,  express- 
ing such  resentment  and  reaction  as  we 
have  by  sending  relief  funds  and  relief 
ships  abroad,  by  making  loans  and  muni- 
tions, by  newspaper  editorials,  and  by 
public  speeches.  We  give  vent  to  our 
feelings  in  a  campaign  for  preparedness 
that  urges  Congress  to  pass  a  few  feeble, 
disconnected  defense  bills,  that  organizes 
numerous  defense  organizations  that  are 
frantically  busy  collecting  members  and 
fees  and  holding  meetings.  We  urge 
taking  what  we  can  get  rather  than 
insisting  upon  what  we  need.  The  re- 
sult is,  a  large  part  of  our  energy  goes 
into  talk,  which  is  not  helping  us  greatly 
to  really  focus  as  a  nation  in  this  great 
crisis  in  the  world's  history. 

What  really  hurts  us  most  is  the  real- 
ization that  we,  who  think  of  America 
as  the  most  prosperous,  energetic,  effi- 
cient, inventive,  and  best  organized  nation 
in  the  world,  have  suddenly  discovered 
that  we  are  nationally  the  most  unpre- 
pared for  united  service  in  any  field  — 


THE   MATTER   WITH   AMERICA        3 

geographical,  military,  industrial,  eco- 
nomic, social,  or  educational.  In  vision, 
independent  thinking,  and  citizenship  we 
are  not  more  prepared.  In  fact  we  have 
hardly  yet  begun  to  think  of  these  in  I 
terms  of  national  service. 

We  are  still  stunned  by  the  realization 
that  we  are  not  in  a  position  to  grapple 
intelligently,  instantly,  and  decisively 
with  situations  in  our  own  country. 
Trinidad  and  Mexico  have  driven  this 
lesson  home.  Our  national  method  of 
dealing  with  hyphenism  and  its  activ- 
ities indicates  little  comprehension  of  its 
real  roots.  We  now  know  also  that  we 
are  not  in  a  position  to  participate  dis- 
interestedly and  courageously  in  the 
international  adjustments  that  will  take 
place  at  the  close  of  the  war.  We  sus- 
pect that  the  "peace  ship"  illustrated 
American  capacity.  Its  founder's  vic- 
tory in  the  presidential  primary  exposes 
our  capacity  for  caprice  in  a  nation's 
crisis.  We  talk  about  fighting  human- 
ity's battles  when  we  have  done  none  of 
the  things  that  qualify  us  for  such  cham- 
pionship. We  but  dimly  realize  that  a 
united,  not  a  divided,  nation  must  enter 


4  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

the  lists.  We  talk  about  upholding  the 
President's  hands,  but  we  now  know  that 
we  did  in  truth  elect  a  minority  Presi- 
dent in  1912,  and  it  is  no  great  task  to 
promise  to  uphold  him.  It  is  lip  service 
to  which  we  have  long  been  accustomed. 

The  war  has  revealed  to  us  the  biting 
truth  that  we  have  one  body  of  people  on 
the  coast  line  realizing  the  need  of  pro- 
tection and  another  in  the  interior  feel- 
ing quite  safe  at  this  distance.  We  see  a 
conglomeration  of  colonies  and  ghettos 
and  immigrant  sections  in  our  large  cities, 
and  the  country  dotted  with  settlements 
quite  as  un-American  as  anything  to  be 
found  abroad.  We  face  the  fact  that 
America  is  not  first  in  the  hearts  of  every 
resident,  that  not  every  man  works  for 
America,  and  that  not  every  man  trusts 
her  present  or  believes  in  her  future. 
This  is  still  the  land  of  promise  for  the 
"bird  of  passage"  who  exploits  us,  and 
whom  we  pluck  in  return. 

Thanks  to  the  war,  we  have  been  freed 
from  the  delusion  that  we  are  a  united 
nation  marching  steadily  along  an  Ameri- 
can highway  of  peace,  prosperity,  com- 
mon ideals,  beliefs,  language,  and  purpose. 


THE   MATTER  WITH  AMERICA        5 

Security  and  prosperity  have  blinded  us 
to  the  fact  that  we  do  not  all  speak  the 
same  language  nor  follow  the  same  flag. 
We  have  marveled  at  the  revelation  that 
our  own  native-born  sons  and  daughters 
of  foreign-born  parents  could  justify  the 
Lusitania  and  defend  the  invasion  of  Bel- 
gium, and  we  have  let  it  go  at  that,  not 
realizing  what  the  acceptance  of  this  por- 
tends for  future  America.  America  has 
neglected,  even  forgotten,  its  task  of 
making  Americans  of  the  people  that 
have  come  to  its  shores.  Men  may  be 
workmen  and  voters  and  taxpayers  and 
bosses,  but  the  final  question  for  this 
nation  to  answer  is  —  are  they  loyal 
American  citizens? 

In  our 'quest  for  nationalism,  we  stand 
aghast  at  the  task  before  us.  About  one 
seventh  of  our  population  is  foreign  born, 
and  about  one  third  is  of  foreign-born  or 
mixed  parentage.  It  is  no  small  assimi- 
lative task  tojgreserye  the  best  in  the 
traditions,  beliefs,  standards,  and  points 
of  view  of  these  peoples  for  the  strengthen- 
ing of  America,  and  to  give  them  enough 
of  America's  ideals  to  make  them  strong 
citizens  of  a  democratic  country.  Mr. 


6  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

Carl  Snyder  is  authority  for  the  statement 
that  one  half  of  all  the  aliens  that  have 
come  to  America  are  still  alive.  Despite 
the  volumes  written  on  the  subject,  we 
do  not  yet  know  whether  this  is  a  good 
or  bad  thing  for  America.  The  test  has 
not  yet  been  applied.  The  war  is  giv- 
ing us  a  breathing  spell  to  find  out 
and  to  define  a  policy  which  will  insure 
Americanism.  In  the  absence  of  any 
constructive  policy  or  clear  national  pur- 
pose we  can  predict  little  for  the  future. 
This  we  do  know,  that  every  govern- 
ment but  our  own  has  a  national  purpose 
which  it  is  carrying  out  in  America  with 
its  own  subjects  —  naturalized  or  alien  — 
through  its  representatives  and  agents, 
its  publications,  institutions,  and  busi- 
ness interests.  America  alone  in  its  own 
territory  has  a  negative  procedure  and  is 
without  a  policy.  We  are  concerned 
chiefly  with  those  we  can  keep  out  or 
send  back.  Once  an  alien  is  admitted 
there  is  no  system  of  protection,  distribu- 
tion, and  assimilation ;  no  specific  induce- 
ments to  citizenship ;  no  encouragement 
to  acquire  a  home  stake  in  America. 
Sectional  and  specific  interests  compete 


THE  MATTER  WITH  AMERICA        7 

for  what  the  immigrant  has  to  offer ;  the 
parent  government  keeps  an  eye  on  the 
new  arrival  and  helps  him  in  distress. 
The  Federal  government  alone  remains 
silent  and  indifferent. 

It  is  true  we  have  the  beginning  of  such 
a  system  in  several  departments.  It  is 
encouraging  that  the  Bureau  of  Naturali- 
zation has  changed  its  attitude  and  is 
now  being  of  some  service  to  aliens  who 
have  applied  for  citizenship.  For  the 
many  years  of  its  existence,  prior  to  1915, 
this  Bureau  had  not  in  any  way  en- 
couraged or  urged  educational  assistance 
for  the  prospective  citizen.  There  is  in 
the  Bureau  of  Education  a  Division  of 
Immigrant  Education  which  for  the  past 
two  years  has  been  carrying  on  important 
educational  work  among  immigrants. 
The  educational  work  of  these  bureaus 
does  not  receive  adequate  support  or 
authority  and  has  not  so  far  been  con- 
sidered as  an  essential  part  of  real  pre- 
paredness. The  vision  and  faith  and 
effort  of  these  officials  is  not  part  of  any 
strong  defined  policy;  it  is  not  coordi- 
nated with  the  government's  larger  activi- 
ties and  could  be  wiped  out  to-morrow 


8  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

by  a  single  order.    It  is  makeshift,  not 
policy. 

This  country  is  alive  to  the  inadequac^ 
of  its  army  and  navy.  It  has  a  glimmer- 
ing that  even  the  strengthening  of  these 
may  not  entirely  protect  its  interests. 
If  we  may  judge  from  the  record  of  Co. 
gress  and  the  press  reports  of  the  activi- 
ties of  our  citizens  to  date,  there  appears, 
however,  to  be  but  the  smallest  compre- 
hension of  the  slack  that  must  be  taken  up 
throughout  this  nation ;  of  the  discipline, 
self-sacrifice,  and  spirit  of  service  that 
each  one  of  us  must  acquire ;  and  of  the 
need  of  organization  along  national  lines 
that  American  institutions  will  require  to 
be  prepared  to  even  maintain  peace. 

After  many  months  of  the  European 
war,  official  America  still  finds  its  chief 
slogan  to  be  "Safety  first"  and  "Made  in 
America."  Toward  nationalizing  its 
transportation  lines,  toward  bringing 
all  ports  under  Federal  control,  toward 
national  citizenship  training,  toward  edu- 
cational unification  and  industrial  pre- 
paredness the  nation  has  made  little 
progress.  We  are  still  dealing  with  ships 
and  guns  and  ammunition,  taking  little 


THE   MATTER  WITH   AMERICA        9 

thought  of  the  questions  of  unity  which 
will  make  a  nation  effective  behind  these 
defenses.  We  still  quibble  over  whether 
we  are  for  universal  training  or  uniform 
service.  We  cannot  federalize  the  militia 
or  abandon  useless  army  posts  because  it 
will  offend  some  sectional  interest  that 
controls  votes  in  the  next  election.  This 
narrow  conception  of  preparedness  is  the 
despair  of  thinking  America.  It  is  the 
doom  of  national  unity. 

In  considering  the  hyphenated  Ameri- 
can, it  is  not  so  much  that  we  question 
his  ultimate  loyalty.  It  is  that  we  ques- 
tion his  understanding  and  ability  to  act  f 
in  an  intelligent,  organized  way  on  behalf 
of  America.  It  is  that  we  do  not  know 
what  influences  may  control  his  action 
though  his  heart  and  interest  may  be  with 
America.  The  question  for  America  to 
answer  is  whether  we  can  create  a  united 
nation  in  both  spirit  and  efficiency  in  the 
short  time  remaining  before  we  have  to 
deal  with  new  questions  arising  after  the 
war.  We  face  the  humiliating  truth  that 
for  any  immediate  conflict  this  cannot  be 
done,  that  we  must  take  the  risk  and,  if 
need  be,  weld  our  many  peoples  together 


10  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

on  the  firing  line.  Will  the  American 
desert  his  forum  for  the  training  camp; 
and  the  platform  for  inconspicuous  field 
action?  Will  he  erase  his  name  from 
committees  and  memorials  and  petitions 
and  throw  away  the  press  notices  with  his 
name  in  them  for  the  toil  and  sweat  of 
industrial  mobilizing?  Will  the  Ameri- 
can woman  stop  making  bandages  and 
joining  organizations  and  put  the  immi- 
grant family  on  her  calling  list  and  send 
the  illiterate  adult  to  school  and  help  to 
make  English  the  common  language  of 
America?  Can  the  Federal  administra- 
tion abandon  its  involved  correspondence 
and  political  fences  long  enough  to  con- 
sider what  the  real  preparedness  of  any 
nation  comprises?  A  body  of  the  best 
railway  men  in  the  country  was  asked 
some  months  ago  to  assist  the  govern- 
ment in  railway  preparedness  and  is  still 
awaiting  instructions.  The  Naval  Con- 
sulting Board,  representing  the  best 
brains  in  the  country  yet  called  together 
for  industrial  preparedness,  pays  its  own 
bills,  largely  because  of  our  national  lack 
of  vision  and  the  "Pork  barrel"  methods 
of  Congress. 


THE   MATTER  WITH  AMERICA     H 

In  the  growing  demand  for  a  more 
united  America  it  is  apparent  that 
America  needs  a  national  spirit  which 
shall  combine  reverence  and  service;  a 
national  consciousness  which  shall  be  will- 
ing to  give  as  well  as  to  receive  benefits 
and  to  put  something  into  politics  as  well 
as  take  something  out;  an  ideal,  which 
shall  make  every  resident  give  something 
of  his  interest,  service,  time,  and  money 
voluntarily  to  America  without  waiting 
for  conscription  and  without  quibbling 
over  "rights/'  "emergencies,"  "time  of 
need,"  or  "obligations  of  business." 

The  practical  questions  before  America  j\ 
are  how  to  become  Americanized  and  how  I  \ 
to  stay  Americanized.    The  answer  to  the  j 
first  question  comprehends  all  measures  j 
of  preparedness  adapted  to  our  present/ 
needs.    The  answer  to  the  second  ques-| 
tion  comprehends  America's  policy  after  \ 
the  war. 

In  the  measure  in  which  we  answer 
the  first  question  so  shall  we  answer  the 
second.  Let  no  one  suppose  that  any- 
thing short  of  a  national  policy,  purpose, 
and  consciousness  in  which  each  one  of 
us  does  his  full  share,  will  meet  the  critical 


12  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

need  of  the  hour.     We  are  agreed  in  the 
hope  that  America  shall  endure  as  a  great 
nation ;  that  we  wish  to  preserve  our  free 
institutions    and    constitutional   guaran- 
tees.    We  are  also  generally  agreed  that 
America  shall  rank  in  the  world  as  a 
nation  of  vision,  courage,  ideals,  oppor- 
tunity, and  achievement;   and  that,  last 
of  all,  out  of  this  democracy  we  hope  to 
get  the  greatest  amount  of  aspiration, 
happiness,  and  achievement  per  man  that 
it  is  possible  for  a  strong  nation  to  have. 
These  are  not  to  be  achieved  by  in- 
action or  by  misdirected  action.    We  are 
at  the  point  where  every  act  counts  for  or 
f  against  the  future  of  America.     I  believe 
I  our  capacity  for  nationalism  is  in  exact 
proportion  to  the  measures  we  take  for 
its  achievement.    The  war  has  taught 
us  that  it  cannot  be  left  to  the  com- 
placency of  the  native  American  or  to 
the  voluntary  efforts  of  the  immigrant. 
A  general  melting  pot  tended  by  no  one 
in  particular  does  not  necessarily  brew  a 
I  nation.     This  is  even  more  true  when  we 
find  so  many  other  self-interested  nations 
;and  people  stirring  this  pot.     The  war 
"lias  also  taught  us  that  the  demand  for 


THE  MATTER  WITH  AMERICA     13 

cheap  labor  cannot  continue  to  be  the 
chief  determining  factor  in  the  admission 
of  immigrants  —  because  of  America's 
new  interest  in  aliens  as  prospective 
citizens^ 

We  not  only  have  a  present  nation-size 
job  of  assimilation,  but  we  need  to  pre- 
pare ourselves  for  the  problems  that  will 
accompany  negotiations  for  peace.  We 
shall  have  at  least  three  questions  of 
great  and  far-reaching  importance  —  in- 
coming immigration,  outgoing  emigration, 
and  citizenship  status  in  America  and 
abroad. 

If  the  pending  immigration  bill  repre- 
sents the  sum  total  of  the  wisdom  we  can 
summon  on  the  first  subject,  we  shall  fail  r&^ 
miserably  to  improve  this  opportunity  by 
substituting  a  constructive  policy  for  our 
prevailing  negative  policy.  Such  arbi- 
trary tests  as  the  literacy  clause  based  on 
race  and  class  theories  and  antagonisms 
bear  no  real  or  lasting  relation  to  the 
fundamental  national  needs  of  the  coun- 
try. This  country  needs  a  statesmanlike 
policy  in  its  international  relations  based 
not  upon  theoretical  makeshifts,  but  upon 
a  knowledge  of  existing  conditions,  upon 


14  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

capacity  for  assimilating  the  immigrant, 
and  upon  our  power  to  develop  the  ma- 
chinery which  will  make  assimilation 
possible. 

Admission  of  aliens  to  this  country 
^should  be  based  upon  their  capacity  for 
.Americanization.  Any  exclusion  laws 
'should  look  to  the  raising  of  the  physical 
standard,  owing  to  the  results  of  the  priva- 
tions and  hardships  of  war,  with  greater 
emphasis  on  deportation  for  crime.  I 
believe  that  every  incoming  immigrant 
should  declare  upon  arrival  his  or  her 
intention  to  remain  here  and  become  a 
citizen.  Every  immigrant  should  be  re- 
quired to  become  literate  in  the  English 
language  (the  minimum  standard  to  be 
definitely  set)  within  five  years  after  ar- 
rival, provided  facilities  are  offered  him. 
Deportation  should  be  the  penalty  for 
failure  to  do  so.  With  the  probable  in- 
crease in  the  immigration  of  women  and 
children,  every  safeguard  should  be 
thrown  about  their  admission,  arrival, 
and  distribution. 

A  policy  of  distribution  should  be 
worked  out.  This  again  requires  three 
fundamental  lines  of  activity  —  agricul- 


THE  MATTER  WITH  AMERICA     15 

tural  organization  which  will  enable  the 
land  to  compete  with  industry  for  the 
laborer  and  settler ;  the  development  of  a 
rural  credit  system  which  will  enable 
people  to  go  to  the  land ;  and  a  national 
system  of  government  employment  agen- 
cies and  the  regulation  of  all  private 
agencies  doing  an  interstate  business. 
All  of  the  civic  and  stimulated  "back  to 
the  land"  schemes  are  doomed  to  failure 
until  these  three  questions  are  solved. 
Industry  will  get  the  great  mass  of  the 
immigrants  as  long  as  it  offers  higher 
wages,  steadier  employment,  decent  con- 
ditions and  opportunities  for  advance- 
ment ;  and  so  long  as,  unlike  agriculture, 
it  has  the  organization  to  reach  the  aliens 
on  or  before  arrival. 

A  policy  of  national  education  is  re- 
quired for  a  statesmanlike  consideration 
of  nationalism.  Local  communities  can- 
not carry  the  burden  of  educating  large 
numbers  of  incoming  residents  concerning 
whom  they  have  not  been  forewarned  and 
who  have  not  grown  up  in  an  American 
community.  The  relation  of  education 
to  seasonal  labor  is  important.  The 
great  forces  in  Americanization  are  the 


16  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

home,  the  school,  and  the  neighborhood. 
These  cannot  influence  the  itinerant  resi- 
dent, in  one  town  to-day  and  gone  to- 
morrow ;  in  a  factory  this  month  and  in 
a  wheat  field  next  month ;  in  a  city  with 
its  rule  of  civilization  one  year,  and  in  a 
labor  camp  with  only  the  most  primitive 
rule  another  year ;  in  a  well-ordered  home 
one  week  and  in  a  derailed  freight  car  the 
next.  We  must  contrive  that  educational 
and  cultural  forces  shall  follow  the  man 
from  place  to  place  if  we  are  to  achieve 
nationalism  through  assimilation. 

America  has  never  had  any  method  of 
protecting  newly  arrived  aliens.  This 
has  been  left  to  states,  cities,  philan- 
thropies, racial  societies,  or  to  foreign 
governments.  The  alien  is  not  only  an 
international  figure  until  he  becomes  a 
citizen,  with  all  of  the  entanglements  of 
dual  citizenship  and  obligations  abroad, 
but  he  is  an  inter-state  and  inter-city 
figure.  Our  industrial  system  and  living 
conditions  make  him  so.  The  average 
immigrant  travels  more  in  the  few  months 
after  arrival  in  America  than  during  his 
whole  lifetime  abroad.  In  the  face  of 
this,  two  cities  and  three  states  have 


THE   MATTER  WITH  AMERICA     17 

recognized  his  disability  and  handicaps 
and  have  tried  specifically  to  protect  him. 
When  the  Federal  government  substi- 
tuted Ellis  Island  for  Castle  Garden,  all 
the  safeguards  that  were  thrown  about 
the  immigrant  by  law  in  the  early  fifties 
were  abolished  because  there  was  no 
longer  anybody  to  enforce  them.  We 
shall  never  attain  a  united  America  so 
long  as  we  permit  the  first  educational 
and  social  contacts  of  the  immigrant  to 
be  controlled  by  his  self-interested  coun- 
trymen, and  our  equally  self-interested 
Americans,  and  the  exploiter,  acting  in- 
dependently, or  as  the  tool  of  both. 

I  am  unable  to  find  in  government  or 
in  industrial  organization,  or  in  a  com- 
bination of  the  two,  any  such  marshaling 
of  facts,  any  such  attention  to  vital  de- 
tails, any  such  breadth  of  view  as  to 
make  one  sanguine  of  results.  The  in- 
dustrial inventory  now  being  made  by 
the  Committee  on  Industrial  Prepared- 
ness of  the  Naval  Consulting  Board  is  in- 
deed an  indication  of  the  possibilities.  It 
is  too  early  to  say  whether  the  government 
will  use  it  or  bury  the  results  along  with 
other  naval  reports. 


18  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

This  is  the  kind  of  service  in  which  all 
good  Americans  can  join,  for  the  guns 
have  been  taken  out  of  industrial  pre- 
paredness. It  is  not  the  kind  of  task 
prosperous  Americans  looking  for  ap- 
preciation will  like.  It  is  singularly  de- 
void of  the  pleasures  of  the  footlight  and 
applause;  it  cannot  be  done  by  a  com- 
mittee meeting  or  sending  a  check ;  it  is 
not  to  be  accomplished  by  "interest"  or 
spasmodic  work.  It  means  a  full  day's 
work  in  the  regular  task  at  which  each 
man  earns  a  living,  to  which  is  added 
the  overhead  charge  of  Americanism  and 
nationalism.  I  am  convinced  that  no 
other  service  or  method  will  make  Amer- 
ica again  unashamed. 

We  may  fairly  conclude  that  the  real 
matter  with  America  is  that  as  a  nation 
it  has  not  achieved  within  itself  a  per- 
manent national  consciousness.  It  has 
no  clear  conception  of  its  national  power 
or  its  responsibility,  having  conformed 
too  largely  to  the  wishes  of  local  govern- 
ments and  their  representatives.  The 
Congressman  still  represents,  not  America, 
but  his  district.  This  is  illustrated  by  the 
retention  of  useless  army  posts  and  state 


THE   MATTER  WITH   AMERICA     19 

militia  doing  police  duty.  The  prevail- 
ing conditions  in  our  political  world  have 
failed  to  make  the  Federal  government 
master  of  its  own  resources  and  forces 
and  the  director  of  its  own  destinies. 
We  are  still  propagandists  occupying  the 
field  of  debate  on  matters  of  preparedness. 
We  are  relying  on  the  presidential  cam- 
paign—  the  heat  of  battle,  as  usual — to 
tell  us  where  "we  are  at,"  after  nearly 
two  years  of  world  conflict. 

America's  selfish  preoccupation,  its  own 
growth  and  prosperity,  have  commercial- 
ized national  sensibility.  Our  war-order 
prices  show  this.  Citizenship  has  come 
to  be  the  cheapest  of  its  privileges  and 
the  football  of  politics.  The  country  has 
been  living  unto  itself  while  taking  into 
its  heart  the  outpouring  of  other  nations. 
The  American  dollar  has  been  the  goal  of 
success,  and  "Safety  first"  the  national 
motto. 

Whether,  in  the  absence  of  a  great  dra- 
matic crisis,  we  shall  attain  that  heroic 
spirit  by  which  a  nation  is  finally  welded 
together  remains  to  be  seen.  America 
needs  nationalized  vision  and  action. 
America  needs  universal  service  from  each 


20  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

and  every  citizen.  America  needs  to  get 
together,  to  study  itself,  to  have  records 
of  its  needs  and  action,  to  organize,  to 
plan,  to  standardize  its  efforts.  America 
needs  national  incentives  and  national  re- 
wards outside  of  politics.  America  needs 
leaders  who  see  its  future  in  terms  of 
international  duties,  Americanism,  and 
efficiency  —  a  synonym  for  preparedness. 
Will  America  achieve  these  things?  I 
believe  the  next  few  years  will  indicate 
whether  America  shall  endure  as  a  great 
nation  or  become  a  colony  of  states  and 
sectional  interests.  The  responsibility 
rests  squarely  upon  the  shoulders  of  each 
and  every  one  of  us.  We  cannot  dele- 
gate it  to  Congress  or  legislatures,  to 
benevolence  or  charity,  to  managers  or 
superintendents,  to  the  "man  who  has 
time"  or  to  the  agitator.  The  call  is  to 
national  service  for  every  one  of  us,  and 
the  only  answer  should  be,  where  can  we 
serve  best  and  how  soon  shall  we  begin  ? 


CHAPTER  II 

AMERICANISM 

WHAT  is  Americanism  ? 

On  the  day  this  was  written  there  ap- 
peared in  the  daily  press  a  "pledge"  now 
being  circulated  among  young  men,  es- 
pecially in  our  colleges  and  universities  : 

"I  being  over  18  years  of  age  hereby 
pledge  myself  against  enlistment  as  a  vol- 
unteer for  any  military  or  naval  service  in 
international  warfare,  offensive  or  defensive, 
and  against  giving  my  approval  to  such  en- 
listment on  the  part  of  others/' 

Compare  with  this  pledge  that  solemn 
oath  taken  many  years  ago  by  the  wise 
elders  of  a  new  republic : 

"...  in  support  of  these  truths  we 
mutually  pledge  to  each  other  our  lives, 
our  fortunes,  and  our  sacred  honor." 

Which  strikes  the  keynote  to  the  future 
of  America  ? 


22  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

"We  cannot  in  this  country  hope  for 
the  compelling  devotion  which  has  ani- 
mated Germany,  still  less  for  the  supreme 
moral  and  intellectual  force  which  is  the 
staying  power  of  France/'  says  Miss 
Repplier  in  a  recent  statement. 

What  then  can  we  hope  for  ?  Granted 
our  geographical  difficulties,  granted  our 
youth,  our  size,  and  the  consequent  im- 
perfect control  of  our  material  resources, 
granted  the  complexity  of  our  problem 
caused  by  the  rapid  immigration  of  the 
past  years,  granted  that  we  are  still  a 
body  of  states  —  does  this  mean  that  we 
cannot  acquire  the  spirit  of  France  and 
the  efficiency  of  Germany? 

I  believe  Miss  Repplier's  attitude  (a 
typical  native  American  one)  shows  an 
entirely  mistaken  conception  of  the  situa- 
tion. No  nation  ever  had  a  more  vigor- 
ous birth  than  ours.  _This^country^  was 
founded  upon  a  body  of  conviction,  clari- 
fied by  a  white  heat  of  passion,  but  repre- 
senting the  judgment  of  deliberate  men 
and  great  statesmen,  men  who  saw  into 
the  future,  and  built  the  ship  of  state  by 
that  vision. 

I    believe    the    foundation    stones    of 


AMERICANISM  23 

Americanism  are  exactly  ^hat  they  were 
140  years  ago,  —  liberty,  opportunity,  and 
obligation.  We  have  lost  sight  of  the 
third.  The  conception  of  liberty  upon 
which  this  country  was  founded  was  a 
chastened  and  a  disciplined  conception. 
It  was  chastened  by  a  menace  to  rights 
as  dear  as  life  itself.  It  was  disciplined 
by  the  immediate  duty  of  defending  these 
by  life  itself,  if  need  be.  That  chastened 
and  disciplined  conception  of  liberty  is 
Americanism.  We  have  now  the  sacred 
tradition.  We  have  now  the  liberty. 
We  have  now  the  opportunity.  Our  task 
is  to  restore  to  it  the  austerity  and  the 
discipline  of  obligation. 

A  combination  of  rights  and  duties,  of 
obligations  and  privileges,  is  the  determin- 
ing idea  in  those  first  vehicles  of  Ameri- 
canism, our  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  our  Constitution.  But  in  interpret- 
ing and  reaffirming  these  in  state  consti- 
tutions, laws,  and  municipal  ordinances, 
—  in  which  for  very  natural  reasons  sec- 
tional and  provincial  points  of  view  have 
often  entered,  —  we  have  drifted  away 
from  the  true  balance  between  these  fun- 
damental rights  and  duties,  a  balance 


24  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

which  is  at  once  the  delicate  spring  and 
the  solid  rock  of  our  existence.  Pros- 
perity, unusual  freedom  of  choice  in  voca- 
tions, varying  and  broad  opportunities 
to  control  the  vast  material  resources  of 
the  country,  have  made  us  complacent 
about  accepting  the  privileges  of  a  de- 
mocracy. We  have  argued  among  our- 
selves endlessly  as  to  just  what  these 
privileges  are  and  whether  perhaps  any 
of  them  are  being  infringed.  But  we 
have  rarely  investigated  whether  we  our- 
selves are  giving  to  the  democracy  the 
respect  and  service  that  alone  can  keep  it 
secure.  Americanism  has  become  for  the 
great  mass  of  Americans  a  point  of  view 
accompanied  by  a  lukewarm  sentiment. 
The  rigor  of  duty  and  the  ardor  of  a  pas- 
sionate belief  have  entered  but  little. 

Through  all  our  defense  discussions 
and  legislation,  one  amazing  thing  has 
stood  out  very  clearly  —  that  the  great 
majority  of  private  citizens  in  America 
recognize  no  compelling  obligation  to 
place  themselves,  their  time,  or  their 
resources  at  the  disposal  of  the  nation. 
They  regard  this  as  a  voluntary  matter. 
They  frequently  question  whether  the 


AMERICANISM  25 

point  of  national  service  ought  to  be 
raised  at  all  with  respect  to  the  law- 
abiding  citizen  who  earns  his  living,  pro- 
vides decently  for  his  family,  and  treats 
his  neighbor  with  respect.  The  time  and 
energy  outside  the  office  or  the  job  and 
the  necessary  duty  to  home  belong  to  the 
moving  picture  or  to  the  pool  room,  or  to 
any  other  pleasure  to  which  the  freeman 
wishes  to  devote  them.  We  have  made 
a  fetish  of  our  industrial  freedom  and  we 
have  tied  our  Americanism  to  it.  The 
everyday  citizen  has  ceased  to  balance 
national  opportunities  with  national 
duties. 

In  all  the  long  years  of  our  progress 
and  prosperity  no  clearer  concept  or 
statement  of  Americanism  than  this  has 
been  made: 

"  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident, 
that  all  men  are  created  equal,  that  they 
are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  cer- 
tain inalienable  Rights,  that  among  these 
are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness, that  to  secure  these  Rights,  govern- 
ments are  instituted  among  Men,  deriving 
their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed." 


26  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

But  to  these  words,  clear  and  solemn,  this 
pledge  was  added : 

"And  for  the  support  of  this  Declara- 
tion, with  a  firm  reliance  on  the  protection 
of  Divine  Providence,  we  mutually  pledge 
to  each  other  our  Lives,  our  Fortunes,  and 
our  Sacred  Honor." 

Nothing  was  said  about  "the  claims 
of  business/'  or  being  "willing  to  do 
anything  that  may  be  necessary  when 
the  need  actually  arises."  When  the 
twentieth-century  Americans  "mutually 
pledge  to  each  other"  these  things,  we 
shall  cease  talking  about  "reasonable 
preparedness."  We  will  arm  and  train 
all  our  manhood.  We  will  restore  democ- 
racy to  the  twentieth  century.  And  we 
will  restore  Americanism  to  America ! 

Restoring  our  real  traditions  of  liberty 
is  not  a  vague  task.  The  general  prin- 
ciples of  liberty  as  stated  in  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  are,  in  part,  very 
practically  interpreted  in  the  Constitu- 
tion. As  there  enumerated  they  include : 
freedom  of  religion;  freedom  of  speech; 
freedom  of  the  press;  the  right  of  peti- 
tion; the  right  to  keep  and  bear  arms; 


AMERICANISM  27 

the  right  to  protest  against  unreasonable 
searches  and  seizures ;  the  right  of  protec- 
tion for  persons  and  property ;  the  right 
of  trial  by  jury ;  the  right  to  vote  without 
abridgment  of  this  right  because  of  race, 
color,  or  previous  conditions  of  servitude. 

These  are  only  minimum  guarantees. 
There  are  other  rights  of  far-reaching 
importance  —  as  the  right  to  profit  by  a 
free  system  of  education.  And  there  are 
besides  these  rights  countless  privileges 
and  dignities  which  no  specific  enumera- 
tion will  cover. 

At  some  time  and  some  where  this 
nation  began  to  think  of  these  privileges 
and  opportunities  rather  in  deed  than  in 
spirit,  and  to  set  them  aside  as  preroga- 
tives for  "first  Americans."  We  began 
to  think  of  ourselves  as  better  than  other 
men  and  to  create  barriers  which  could 
not  but  result  in  injustice  and  intoler- 
ance. And  just  at  that  point  we  laid 
the  corner  stone  of  our  shame  to-day. 

"First  Americans"  have  already 
pointed  out  to  us  that  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  never  foresaw  the  "  Southern 
European  hordes"  that  now  flock  here. 
Perhaps  not.  But  I  question  if  the  vision 


28  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

would  have  disturbed  them,  or  whether 
it  could  ever  have  put  greater  caution 
and  reserve  into  the  instrument  they  were 
drawing  up.  The  magnanimity  of  spirit 
there  expressed  is  based  upon  something 
greater  than  philosophy.  It  is  based 
upon  a  quality  that  has  nothing  to  do 
with  changes  of  times  or  conditions,  a 
quality  of  stern  fearlessness,  a  national 
conviction  that  the  destiny  of  this  nation 
was  to  be  above  all  else  the  safeguard 
and  champion  of  liberty. 

The  extent  to  which  we  have  departed 
from  the  ideals  set  forth  in  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  and  the  Constitution 
is  best  measured  by  the  way  we  have 
come  to  regard  and  to  treat  the  most 
helpless  and  trusting  of  our  people  — 
the  immigrants  who  come  to  our  shores. 
Our  early  policy  at  Castle  Garden  was  to 
meet  them,  advise  them,  protect  them  by 
laws,  safeguard  their  journey,  and  to  con- 
sider them  as  a  valuable  asset  to  America 
and  its  future  development.  Compare 
with  this  the  route  of  the  immigrant  in 
America  to-day,  keeping  in  mind  our  fore- 
fathers' conception  of  American  guaran- 
tees of  life,  liberty,  and  happiness. 


AMERICANISM 


The  immgrant__am^  of 

entry.  After  passing  his  examination 
(during  which  time  not  a  friendly  word  of 
greeting  is  given  him,  or  a  personal  in- 
terest taken  in  him)  he  is  turned  loose 
upon  the  city  to  be  met  at  the  gate  by 
cabmen,  porters,  runners,  crooks,  thieves, 
and  every  conceivable  kind  of  exploiter 
interested  in  getting  his  cash  money. 
This  is  America's  first  reception  line. 
He  then  meets  our  second  reception  line 
—  the  employment  agent,  the  private 
banker,  and  "steering  agent"  who  derive 
profit  from  his  labor  before  it  has  even 
become  productive.  When  the  immi- 
grant actually  goes  to  work,  he  has 
generally  lost  his  money  and  is  in  debt. 
He  then  meets  our  third  American  recep- 
tion line,  the  employer  interested  only  in 
his  labor  output,  and  he  is  treated  accord- 
ingly. He  is  generally  left  alone,  to  live 
as  best  he  can,  until  he  begins  to  save 
money.  This  immediately  calls  forth 
our  fourth  reception  line  —  the  private 
banker  who  renews  his  acquaintance  and 
offers  to  help  him  send  his  money  home  ; 
the  speculator  in  land  who  looks  him  up  ; 
the  get-rich-quick  concerns  that  advertise 


30  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

in  the  papers  he  reads,  and  the  medical 
quack  who  sells  him  so-called  "Ameri- 
can "  medicines.  Some  one  tells  him  he 
may  be  better  off  as  a  citizen,  and  then 
appears  our  fifth  American  reception  line 
—  the  politician  willing  to  buy  his  vote 
because  he  needs  it,  the  notary  public 
who  is  ready  to  settle  his  affairs  at  home 
so  that  he  can  "cut  loose,"  and  the  labor 
leader  who  thinks  now  he  ought  to  be 
organized. 

By  the  time  the  immigrant  has  shaken 
hands  along  these  various  reception  lines 
he  feels  he  knows  everybody,  and  he  has 
a  very  definite  idea  of  liberty,  justice, 
freedom,  law,  order,  and  measures  of  hap- 
piness which  in  no  sense  accords  with  our 
forefathers'  ideal  of  America. 

I  sometimes  wonder  when  I  see  men 
in  the  night  schools  studying  our  Consti- 
tution to  enable  them  to  pass  their  citizen- 
ship examinations  how  they  square  its 
teaching  with  their  various  experiences 
under  the  peonage  system  of  the  South; 
with  the  robberies  by  the  company  store 
in  the  coal  mines;  with  the  sentences 
they  receive  for  minor  offenses  in  justice- 
of-peace  courts  which  have  no  interpret- 


AMERICANISM  31 

ers ;  with  the  prohibition  that  they  can- 
not work  at  certain  trades,  for  example 
In  Michigan  where  they  cannot  be  bar- 
bers; with  restrictions  upon  personal 
liberty,  as  in  Pennsylvania  where  they 
cannot  keep  a  dog;  with  the  repeated 
private  bank  failures  in  which  all  their 
savings  were  lost ;  with  the  double  stand- 
ard of  living  under  which  they  see  their 
American  neighbors  protected  and  them- 
selves neglected  and  exploited. 

I  ask  myself  if  the  time  will  ever  come 
when  we  shall  restore  Americanism  as  the 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence conceived  it.  We  cannot  do  this 
until  we  ourselves  believe  in  practical 
Americanism.  We  are  coming  to  realize 
that  the  native  American  who  makes  the 
lives  of  our  foreign  born  wholly  subser- 
vient to  the  industrial  grind  and  who 
neither  provides  for  nor  permits  them  to 
become  American  citizens  is  himself  a 
strong  anti-American  influence  in  this 
country;  that  the  native  American  who 
permits  the  foreign  born  to  enter  and 
denies  them  the  opportunities  of  America 
and  the  right  to  work,  is  really  anti- 
American;  that  the  native  American 


32  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

who  emphasizes  the  liberties  and  oppor- 
tunities of  America  without  correspond- 
ingly emphasizing  the  duties  of  all  Ameri- 
can residents  is  anti- American.  We  are 
beginning  to  see  that  the  native~Xmer- 
vican  is  anti- American  who  perpetuates 
Hass  consciousness  and  race  hatred ;  who 
favors  or  perpetuates  the  immigrant 
colony  or  camp  or  section  with  differ- 
ent standards  of  living,  different  law 
enforcement  and  isolation  from  American 
influences ;  who  establishes  his  own  home 
and  his  own  children  in  a  well-policed, 
sanitary  section  of  the  town  and  leaves 
his  immigrant  neighbor  in  another  sec- 
tion unprotected  and  living  in  filth  and 
disorder.  We  are  coming  to  regard  that 
man  as  a  selfish  patriot  who  consistently 
and  complacently  in  his  factory  exacts  a 
physical  toll  from  his  workmen  without 
regard  to  the  cost  in  citizenship  to 
America;  and  that  woman  as  anti- 
American  who  takes  a  girl  into  the 
kitchen  because  of  certain  racial  excel- 
lences, but  refuses  to  consider  that  these 
excellences  have  any  social  value  to 
America  outside  the  walls  of  that  kitchen 
and  who  therefore  uses  and  monopolizes 


AMERICANISM  33 

her  labor  capacity  but  contributes  noth- 
ing toward  making  that  girl  an  American 
citizen  qualified  to  preside  over  an  Ameri- 
can home.  We  are  coming  to  see  that  a 
political  leader  is  a  menace  to  a  united 
America  who  uses  newly  naturalized  im- 
migrants to  swing  the  American  vote  in 
this  direction  or  that,  but  who  does  noth- 
ing to  make  the  immigrant  a  good 
citizen,  or  even  to  see  that  he  under- 
stands American  political  ideals. 

It  is  impossible  to  have  the  spirit  of 
Americanism  prevail  in  this  land  when  at 
least  a  quarter  of  its  people  do  not  under- 
stand it,  or  have  been  disillusioned  in  their 
dream  of  it4  or  have  been  despoiled  in  their 
search  for  it.  I  do  not  minimize  the  value 
of  hardship  of  obstacles  to  be  overcome. 
They  make  for  the  strength  of  a  nation 
just  as  they  do  for  the  strength  of  a 
human  being.  But  I  like  to  see  the  ob- 
stacles set  up  in  a  fair  field  with  no  favor 
—  where  a  man  can  see  them  and  meet 
them  intelligently.  This  is  what  Ameri- 
canism stands  for,  but  it  is  not  what  it 
means  to  the  average  immigrant.  We 
point  with  pride  to  the  immigrant  who 
succeeds  in  spite  of  it,  but  I  suspect  that 


34  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

often  we  judge  by  his  clothes  and  his 
house  and  his  speech  rather  than  by  his 
outlook  upon  life  and  his  inlook  upon 
himself.  We  satisfy  ourselves  by  com- 
paring his  lot  here  with  what  it  was  in  his 
home  country — often  without  real  knowl- 
edge of  either.  We  fail  to  see  that  we 
have  lost  the  dream  of  what  America  may 
be  and  with  the  dream  the  ability  to 
achieve  it,  when  we  become  content  that 
America  should  merely  be  better  than 
Russia  or  freer  than  Austria  instead  of 
being  the  very  best  of  which  America  is 
capable. 

This  country  is  full  of  so-called  un- 
American  types.  Some  of  them  are 
native  born  and  some  are  foreign  born. 
Immigrant  men  and  women  in  this  rank 
of  We  or  that,  who  have  been  in  this  coun- 
try for  years,  have  found  themselves  iso- 
lated from  and  ignored  by  Americans. 
American  customs  and  standards  have 
therefore  failed  to  alter  them.  The  result 
is  the  perpetuation  of  foreign  types  or  the 
creation  of  distinct  types  which  we  refuse 
to  accept  as  ours,  but  in  the  making  of 
which  we  have  certainly  had  a  controlling 
hand.  Take  the  typical  foreign-born 


AMERICANISM  35 

journalist  and  publicist.  There  are  hun- 
dreds of  them  to-day  fighting  the  battle 
of  Americanization  for  their  fellow  coun- 
trymen here  against  fearful  odds  because 
they  are  so  far  from  being  Americanized 
themselves.  Many  of  them  are  philoso- 
phers, students,  zealots;  many  of  them 
are  ail-American  in  aspiration.  But  they 
are  not  themselves  in  possession  of  the 
very  Americanism  they  seek  to  interpret. 
And  their  efforts  at  Americanizing  their 
fellow  countrymen  fall  as  far  short  as 
would  a  piece  of  philosophy  with  a  man 
in  need  of  a  pick  to  earn  his  living,  bread 
to  eat,  or  a  tongue  with  which  to  speak. 

Medical  quacks,  shyster  lawyers, 
saloon-politicians,  chronically  bankrupt 
factory  owners  or  lessees  of  foreign  birth 
are  continually  pointed  out  to  us  as  the 
types  that  are  being  inflicted  upon  a  long- 
suffering  America.  They  are  in  fact  the 
types  that  a  negligent  America  is  inflict- 
ing upon  itself. 

How  can  we  expect  people  from  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  from  all  kinds  of 
governments  and  traditions,  to  under- 
stand the  principles  of  liberty,  as  they 
have  been  handed  down  to  us  ?  The  one 


36  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

thing  they  do  understand  is  that  the  sur- 
veillance that  prevails  in  the  old  country 
does  not  prevail  here.  Take  the  small 
business  man  or  small  factory  operator  of 
foreign  birth  in  New  York,  the  frequenter 
of  the  bankruptcy  court,  the  owner  of 
flimsy  factory  lofts  which,  when  they  have 
been  burnt  down,  show  the  evasion  of  the 
most  obvious  laws.  These  men  as  youths 
in  new  America  see  that  every  man  is  free 
to  try  his  hand  at  anything  he  wishes. 
Seeing  only  this,  they  get  the  idea  that 
the  great  American  game  is  the  strife  of 
one  man  against  the  other,  that  this 
island  of  Manhattan  and  this  country 
are  a  land  of  single  combat  on  a  large 
scale,  of  which  competition  is  the  real 
secret,  endurance  and  cunning  and  ag- 
gression the  winning  qualities.  When 
they  once  get  this  idea,  and  they  often 
get  it  very  rapidly,  they  follow  it  as  the 
dominating  principle  of  their  practical 
existence  in  America.  I  say  their  prac- 
tical existence,  because  the  methods  pur- 
sued by  many  immigrant  traders,  busi- 
ness and  professional  men  in  this  country 
do  not  represent  at  all  any  moral  point  of 
view  which  they  have  evolved  themselves. 


AMERICANISM  37 

What  they  do  represent  is  a  practical 
routine,  a  thoughtless  application  of  the 
principles  they  see  Americans  practicing 
all  around  them.  And  unlike  the  Ameri- 
cans, they  have  no  background  of  Ameri- 
can tradition  which  will  interpret  differ- 
ences and  distinctions  to  them  and  give 
them  a  general  criterion. 

Certain  things  are  essential  to  eluci- 
dating and  preserving  Americanism.  One 
of  these  is  a  common  language.  Not  until 
the  necessity  for  national  defense  was 
thrust  upon  us  have  we  considered  seri- 
ously requiring  that  all  American  residents 
learn  English.  It  is  true  we  said  in  1906 
that  all  naturalized  citizens  must  have 
a  knowledge  of  the  English  language, 
but  we  neglected  to  define  what  we  meant, 
so  the  knowledge  may  consist  of  as  many 
words  as  each  of  several  hundred  judges 
may  decide  is  a  fair  test.  Not  until  the 
business  man  found  that  a  knowledge  of 
English  reduced  accidents  did  he  indorse 
night  schools.  Only  two  states  require 
compulsory  attendance  of  minors  under 
eighteen  years  of  age  to  learn  the  English 
language. 

This  lack  of  a  common  language  has 


38  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

prevented  the  American  born  and  foreign 
born  from  getting  together  in  a  common 
Americanism.  It  has  been  a  closed  door 
to  nationalism. 

A  second  is  a  common  citizenship.  We 
have  thought  of  this  as  the  most  sacred 
of  rights  and  have  safeguarded  it  with 
every  possible  technicality.  Again  our 
policy  has  been  negative,  discouraging, 
and  hampering.  We  have  put  up  the  bars 
with  one  hand  while  with  the  other  we 
have  poked  holes  through  the  hedges  for 
the  political  boss.  We  make  it  impossible 
for  an  alien  to  acquire  citizenship  within 
five  years,  but  permit  him  to  vote — with 
all  that  implies  —  in  eight  states  after  he 
has  been  there  a  few  months.  What 
conception  can  he  have  of  how  we  regard 
this  privilege  and  right  and  why  has  he 
no  compunction  in  selling  it  ?  He  leaves 
his  home  country  to  escape  military  duty 
and  attends  meetings  in  America  where 
he  is  told  he  is  not  even  expected  to 
defend  this  country  in  case  of  war.  Not 
one  public  school  in  a  hundred  makes 
any  provisions  for  teaching  him  about 
American  conditions,  life,  and  government. 
Again  he  finds  a  closed  door  to  American- 


AMERICANISM  39 

ism,  and  it  is  small  wonder  when  it  is 
opened  that  he  enters,  a  skeptic  of 
democracy. 

Men  work  for  and  defend  what  is  dear 
to  them.  When  a  job  is  the  only  stake, 
it  is  a  rather  narrow  base  for  patriotism. 
The  newly  arrived  immigrant  is  not  given 
much  of  an  opportunity  to  have  any  sen- 
timent or  inspiring  associations  about  his 
job.  The  average  employer  feels  that 
when  he  raises  wages  he  has  discharged 
his  full  duty  to  his  workman  and  to  his 
country.  But  America  is  concerned  not 
only  with  what  a  man  earns,  but  with 
how  he  spends  it.  It  is  interested  in  his 
having  a  home  stake  in  America,  and  in 
his  investing  in  America.  Only  a  prodi- 
gal, short-sighted,  hand-to-mouth  nation 
can  look  with  indifference  upon  workmen 
sending  $400,000,000  abroad,  and  follow- 
ing their  savings  there  each  year. 

So  it  is  with  his  living  conditions.  In 
the  vermin-ridden  bunk  house  the  Italian 
dreams  of  Italy.  In  the  bungalow  with  a 
flower  garden  Italy  is  far  in  the  back- 
ground. The  "pursuit  of  happiness" 
was  mentioned  with  life  and  liberty,  but 
as  we  have  forgotten  our  duties  in  privi- 


40  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

leges,  so  have  we  neglected  happiness  for 
life  in  terms  of  gain. 

We  need  a  new  social  impulse  back  of 
our  patriotism.  We  have  come  to  the 
point  where  we  even  trifle  with  the  idea 
that  nationalism  may  be  an  outworn 
thing,  too  parochial  a  survival  to  stand 
the  white  light  of  the  twentieth  century. 
We  have  a  great  deal  of  social  emotion  of 
one  kind  or  another  in  this  country.  It 
has  put  many  healthy  ideas  into  circula- 
tion, registered  many  needed  protests. 
But  it  has  been  so  remote  from  the  actual 
business  of  life,  so  far  removed  from  the 
job  and  the  polling  booth,  that  it  has  done 
little  even  for  those  that  have  served  it 
best.  The  prevailing  idea  of  social  free- 
dom in  this  country  within  the  last  few 
years  has  developed  among  the  industrial 
groups  of  our  large  cities  especially  a  kind 
of  intellectual  proletariat,  whose  creed  is 
active  social  reform,  but  whose  practice 
is  intellectualism.  This  constitutes  a  cu- 
rious menace  to  Americanism.  It  seeks 
to  substitute  the  "brotherhood  of  man" 
for  all  the  loyalties  and  obligations  and 
relationships  of  life.  I  saw  a  month  or 
two  ago  in  a  widely  circulated  magazine 


AMERICANISM  41 

a  symposium  to  which  many  writers  and 
publicists  contributed,  stating  whether 
or  not  they  "believed  in  patriotism"  and 
saw  any  validity  in  it.  Some  did  and 
some  did  not.  It  was  discussed  as  if  it 
were  the  protective  tariff. 

The  I.  W.  W.'s  urge  their  followers  to 
ignore  national  lines  and  unite  only  as 
"  Workers  oFfaTT^^ 
many  of  those  followers,  truly  united  in 
their  passion  for  industrial  freedom,  hood- 
wink themselves  into  believing  that  in 
this  bond  all  the  debts  and  privileges  of 
a  national  citizenship  are  more  than  in- 
cluded. They  come  to  speak  slightingly 
of  those  that  still  hold  to  so  practical  a 
loyalty.  The  immigrants,  wavering  be- 
tween two  loyalties  and  firmly  fixed  in 
neither,  and  especially  the  immigrants 
who  come  from  those  countries  where  the 
social  sense  is  strongly  developed,  are 
especially  drawn  or  think  they  are  by 
the  appeal  of  a  loyalty  to  "no  God  and 
no  master"  —  and  respond  readily  to  the 
flexible  and  not  too  confining  idea  of 
brotherhood.  The  idea  moves  and  sways 
the  throng.  But  when  they  go  home  to 
their  crowded  rooms  in  tenements,  when 


42  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

they  go  the  next  morning  to  the  job, 
when  they  deal  with  property,  those  men 
and  women  need  a  government,  under- 
standing and  equable,  to  carry  and  con- 
trol the  conditions  of  their  lives,  to  safe- 
guard their  rights,  to  aid  them  to  right 
their  wrongs.  It  alone  can  give  them 
the  guarantees  and  the  tradition  of  indus- 
trial freedom.  They  need  a  loyalty. 

We  must  learn  to  care.  Our  hearts 
must  be  on  fire  with  belief,  or  we  shall 
never  have  Americanism.  We  need  to 
go  back  again  to  the  sources  of  our  liberty 
and  relight  our  torches  there.  It  is  be- 
cause we  have  not  Americanism  in  our 
hearts  and  souls,  because  we  have  not 
been  through  the  process  of  Americani- 
zation, because  we  have  become  slaves  to 
prosperity  and  faithless  to  our  ideals  that 
we  have  failed  Europe  at  a  critical  time. 
Americanism  has  become  a  phrase,  a  trade- 
mark, a  passport.  Unless^somehow  and 
somewhere  we  can  restore  belief  and  zeal 
and  faith  in  our  destiny  we  face  the  disun- 
ion of  this  Republic  into  races  and  creeds, 
into  sectionalism  and  localism,  into  class 
warfare  between  capital  and  labor,  into  self- 
ish individualism  rather  than  nationalism. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN 

I  FIND  the  future  of  America  a  far  more 
hopeful  and  beautiful  thing  to  contem- 
plate from  the  trenches  of  a  new  subway 
than  from  a  Fifth  Avenue  bus.  Perhaps 
it  is  because  in  one  is  seen  the  raw  material 
of  hopes,  ideals,  and  ambitions  in  the 
making,  —  a  people  eagerly  looking  for- 
ward ;  while  in  the  other  these  ideals  are 
already  fashioned,  perhaps  discarded, 
—  a  people  looking  backward.  I  am 
not  more  afraid  of  the  ignorant  vote  than 
of  the  absent  vote ;  of  the  discontented 
alien  than  of  the  satisfied  American ;  of 
the  hungry  laborer  than  of  the  surfeited 
idler  ;~~oTthe  casual  laBorer  than  of  the 
overworked  industrial  captain;  of  the 
patient,  plodding  hand  toiler  than  of 
the  dreamer  of  the  get-rich-quick  con- 
cerns ;  of  the  alien  with  the  family  back 
home  than  of  the  American  with  no  fam- 
43 


44  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

ily  at  all.    They  all  go  to  make  up  one 
America. 

When  we  think  of  a  united  America, 
our  minds  naturally  turn  to  Americaniz- 
ing the  immigrant.  Big  as  that  task  is,  I 
do  not  believe  that  our  greatest  difficulty 
lies  with  him.  Rather  I  fear  that..j?£e__ 
shall  have  to  Americanize  our  native 
Americans  first  —  in  increased  respect 
for  the  flag,  in  conscious  renewed  alle- 
giance to  America,  in  the  patriotic  use 
of  the  nation's  holidays,  in  measures  of 
national  service.  We  have,  I  think,  to 
return  to  the  civilian  training  camp  and 
universal  service  as  a  melting  pot  for 
natives  before  we  can  make  America  a 
successful  melting  pot  for  aliens. 

The  average  native  American  is  local, 
provincial,  self-interested,  constitution- 
ally opposed  to  any  change  that  may 
threaten  his  particular  established  local 
order.  The  average  native  employer 
looks  askance  at  anything  that  may  upset 
his  labor  supply,  be  that  a  shop  census  or 
workmen's  compensation.  The  average 
native  employee  does  not  take  to  such 
new-fangled  ideas  as  health  insurance  and 
promotion  based  on  record.  It  is  the 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  45 

native-born  American  woman  who  crosses 
to  the  American  side  of  the  street  and  who 
still  meets  and  discusses  the  immigrant 
as  a  problem.  I  suspect  it  was  a  native 
American  who  dubbed  the  Italians 
"  dagoes,"  the  Hungarians,  "hunkies," 
the  Lithuanians  "round  heads,"  and  so 
on.  There  is  no  better  invention  for  pro- 
longing personal  conflict  than  derisive 
nicknames,  and  America  seems  to  have 
done  its  share  in  this  direction. 

It  is  natural  that  those  who  carry  re- 
sponsibilities should  be  conservative,  but 
the  native  American  seems  to  me  to  carry 
this  responsibility  to  the  verge  of  reaction 
and  antagonism.  I  am  reminded  of  a 
time  when  I  had  occasion  to  summon  an 
employer  and  employee  before  me  for  a 
hearing  upon  a  wage  dispute  and  was 
reminded  that  it  was  presumption  to 
set  the  employee  opposite  the  employer 
to  discuss  such  a  trivial  matter  on  equal 
terms.  I  am  constantly  asked  to  enter- 
tain women's  clubs  who  find  immigration 
"interesting,"  but  whose  members  shrink 
from  the  neighborly  services  which  they 
might  render  in  their  own  communities. 

There  are  always  many  exceptions  to 


46  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

any  general  statement.  But  this  does  not 
alter  the  fact  that  the  native  American 
has  a  point  of  view,  a  state  of  mind,  a 
prejudiced  observance,  a  sense  of  superior- 
ity —  which  makes  him  greatly  in  need 
of  Americanization.  This  is  acquired 
by  the  native  boy  and  girl  early  in  life. 
What  opportunity  has  the  average  native- 
born  boy  and  girl  to  learn  about  American 
citizenship  and  its  duties  and  rights? 
The  public  and  parochial  schools  give  little 
more  than  history  and  an  indifferent  kind 
of  civil  government,  which  seems  to  us 
as  we  learn  it  to  have  little  to  do  with  us 
or  our  future.  Our  patriotic  days  are 
largely  holidays  from  school,  filled  with 
fun  and  pranks,  but  rarely  with  any  sense 
of  their  real  significance.  They  seem  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  very  free- 
dom we  enjoy  on  those  days.  The  boy 
becomes  a  voter  by  the  mere  act  of 
registering  his  name.  The  average  girl 
is  unconscious  that  she  ever  becomes  a 
citizen  unless  she  is  interested  in  suf- 
frage or  anti-suffrage,  or  unless  practical 
property  questions  arise.  We  can  hardly 
expect  under  these  conditions  much 
realization  of  what  nationalism  means,  or 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  47 

that  a  call  to  national  service  will  meet 
with  much  response.  The  surprising 
thing  is  that  in  spite  of  our  official  neglect 
and  indifference,  youths  are  filled  with 
patriotism  and  desire  to  serve,  if  it  can 
be  utilized  before  the  shop  and  home 
absorb  all  their  energies. 

I  believe  that  a  really  careful,  impartial 
analysis  of  our  situation  to-day  would 
reveal  two  things:  that  there  are  two 
main  systems  of  thought  and  lines  of 
activity  upon  which  the  hope  and  future 
of  America  depend  —  one  is  government 
and  the  other  is  business.  They  alone 
have  a  nation-wide  organization,  whose 
units  reach  every  American  community 
and  every  American  resident.  To  the 
government  we  look  for  law,  order,  educa- 
tion, justice,  and  the  essentials  of  com- 
munity life ;  to  the  industry  for  the  job 
or  the  market  which  gives  life  to  the  com- 
munity. Go  where  you  will,  in  the  last 
analysis  a  native  American  controls  the 
situation.  The  man  higher  up,  if  you  go 
high  enough,  is  invariably  a  native-born 
American.  It  is  said  that  there  are  more 
native-born  sons  of  Connecticut  in  Oregon 
than  in  Connecticut,  but  the  great  indus- 


48  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

tries  of  Connecticut  that  set  the  pace  for 
the  state  are  in  the  hands  of  native  Ameri- 
cans. So  it  is  with  government.  Minor 
offices,  sometimes  even  important  offices, 
are  in  the  hands  of  naturalized  citizens, 
but  usually  with  the  consent  or  approval 
of  some  native  American —  sometimes  far 
removed  from  the  scene  of  action. 

The  radius  of  this  native  American  in- 
fluence bears  no  relation  to  numbers. 
It  encompasses  the  school,  the  home,  the 
neighborhood,  the  personal  life  of  the 
resident.  We  fill  our  night  schools  by 
adjusting  them  to  the  industrial  organi- 
zation and  securing  its  cooperation.  We 
fill  our  civilian  training  camps  by  the 
cooperation  of  employers  in  granting 
absences  and  paying  wages.  We  obtain 
a  common  standard  of  living  by  enforce- 
ment of  laws  that  set  the  standard.  Civic 
and  philanthropic  agencies  may  be  the 
pioneers,  the  educators,  the  balance 
restorers;  they  can  care  for  the  waste 
and  discover  causes.  But  America  has 
too  long  regarded  them  as  the  unifiers 
of  its  many  peoples,  as  the  makers  of 
citizens.  We  now  know  that  this  task 
comes  squarely  back  to  the  political  and 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  49 

industrial  leader  and  to  no  other;    to 
the  native  born  and  to  no  other. 

America  is  the  proud  possessor  of  some 
significant  and  far-reaching  illusions 
which  make  a  poor  foundation  for  the 
structures  it  is  seeking  to  build.  Chief 
among  these  is  the  assertion  that  the  im- 
migrant lowers  the  American  standard 
of  living.  In  the  final  analysis  it  is 
America  thaf  Blowers  the^Toaimgojit?s 


^ 
own  slandarcTof  jvyig^-.  A  3ouble  stand- 


ard of  living  is  imposed  upon  the  immi- 
grant by  the  responsible  native  American. 
Of  the  many  hundreds  of  immigrant 
communities  which  I  have  studied,  I 
recall  none  in  which  American  ideals 
were  being  aggressively  menaced  by 
immigrants  who  were  determined  to 
have  none  of  them.  Isolation,  betrayal 
of  our  own  minimum  social  and  civic 
standards,  these  I  have  seen  over  and 
over  again.  But  always  the  immigrant 
population  has  been  the  weaker  force 
in  any  given  community.  There  are  in 
the  country  to-day  hundreds  of  towns, 
say  of  1500  population,  in  which  the 
foreign  born  number  one  half.  But  in 
civic  strength,  social  influence,  and  politi- 


50  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

cal  power,  the  immigrant  50  per  cent 
measures  less  than  10  per  cent.  In  the 
census  they  appear  as  towns  of  1500.  In 
reality  the  native-born  residents  of  these 
towns  consider  them  as  towns  of  about 
500  —  with  an  unfortunate  though  neces- 
sarily large  annex  of  immigrant  workmen 
and  their  families  who  live  "on  the 
other  side  of  the  railroad"  or  in  some 
other  segregated  spot  —  to  which  fire 
and  water  systems,  garbage  collections 
and  calling  do  not  penetrate.  Now 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  that  large 
"annex"  is  a  menace  to  the  future  of 
America.  But  it  is  a  menace  produced 
by  American  neglect,  not  by  immigrant 
aggression  and  malevolence. 

We  shall  never  solve  the  immigration 
problem  so  long  as  we  begin  with  the 
immigrant's  shortcomings,  nor  shall  we 
attain  Americanism  so  long  as  we  define 
it  as  nativism.  We  need  not  fear  that 
we  are  not  as  much  in  control  as  we  ever 
were.  We  set  the  standards.  The  ques- 
tion is  whether  we  have  cause  to  be  satis- 
fied with  the  way  in  which  we  do  it.  The 
ideals  and  standards  of  America  are  set 
by  the  American  born  to-day  just  as 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  51 

they  were  in  our  early  history.  In  all 
communities  which  I  have  studied  the 
American-born  residents  or  employers 
are  the  determining  factors.  The  citizen 
may  send  you  through  many  devious 
channels,  to  see  this  boss  and  that  boss, 
to  win  friends  for  your  cause  from  this 
foreign-born  leader  or  that  immigrant 
saloon-keeper,  but  eventually  you  deal 
with  a  native  American,  not  with  an  alien. 
Mr.  Ross,  in  the  "Old  World  in  the 
New/1  points  to  a  typical  Western  town 
of  26,000  inhabitants,  10,000  of  them 
immigrants,  and  gives  a  picture  of  the 
vice,  intemperance,  bad  housing,  and 
wretched  standards  of  living  resulting  in 
this  town  from  the  immigrant  population. 
We  in  America  believe  in  majority  rule. 
There  was  a  safe  margin  of  6000  Ameri- 
cans in  that  town,  free  to  establish  and 
insist  upon  any  standard  they  chose. 
Why  were  the  Americans  beaten  in  the 
struggle?  Because  here  as  in  many 
places  they  ignored  or  definitely  isolated 
the  immigrants,  permitting  them  to  work 
all  day  with  Americans  at  the  mills  or 
factories  where  they  were  needed,  and 
then  encouraging  or  compelling  them  to 


52  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

spend  all  the  rest  of  their  time  in  their  own 
corner  of  the  town,  and  to  encroach  no 
more  than  necessary  upon  the  respectable 
streets  and  schools  and  churches  and 
recreations  of  the  American  section. 

Persecuted  America!  Miss  Repplier, 
lamenting  the  immigrant  invasion  of 
Philadelphia,  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  not 
long  ago,  presents  a  truly  colonial  point 
of  view  concerning  the  suffering  wrought 
by  the  twentieth-century  world  of 
America  in  this  colonial  stronghold.  In 
the  mind  of  Miss  Repplier  and  many 
thousands  of  Americans  the  long-suffer- 
ing American,  heir  of  all  the  ages,  legatee 
of  all  the  best  traditions  of  liberty  and 
opportunity  sealed  in  1776,  is  now  driven 
like  sheep  before  the  advancing  immi- 
grant hordes : 

"  Dirt  is  a  valuable  asset  in  the  immi- 
grant's hands.  With  its  help  he  drives 
away  decent  neighbors,  and  brings  property 
down  to  his  level  and  his  purse.  The  ill- 
fated  Philadelphian  is  literally  pushed  out 
of  his  home  —  the  only  place,  sighs  Mrs. 
Pennell,  where  he  wants  to  live  —  by  con- 
ditions that  he  is  unable  to  avert,  and  un- 
willing, as  well  as  unfitted,  to  endure." 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  53 

Old  Philadelphians  that  would  never 
have  run  from  an  Indian,  that  would 
have  conquered  the  forests  and  spanned 
the  rivers,  run  from  the  Italian  and  the 
Pole.  Alas !  We  too  have  deteriorated. 
We  see  nothing  dramatic,  we  feel  no 
challenge,  in  the  fight  to  raise  the  stand- 
ards of  our  less  fortunate  neighborhoods. 
We  cannot  find  any  inspiration  in  that 
ideal  of  justice  which  insists  on  law  en- 
forcement equally  among  all  residents 
of  a  neighborhood.  Is  there  nothing  to 
be  said  on  behalf  of  the  neighborly, 
friendly  visiting  which  would  soon  make 
dirt  as  unfashionable  in  the  immigrant's 
as  in  the  Philadelphian's  home?  The 
reason  that  the  tenement  fire  escapes 
are  cluttered  in  Rivington  Street  and 
free  on  Fifth  Avenue  is  not,  as  we  fondly 
suppose,  that  immigrants  prefer  fire 
escapes  draped  with  bedding  and  pillows 
and  children.  The  answer  is  that  they 
move  to  Fifth  Avenue  as  soon  as  their 
income  permits  and  as  fast  as  they  learn 
how  well  it  is  possible  to  live  in  America. 

Let  us  take  a  town  in  the  making  and 
see  if  the  standards  do  not  come  back  to 
some  native  American.  Take,  for  in- 


54  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

stance,  the  towns  that  have  grown  up  dur- 
ing the  war-order  prosperity,  which  is 
typical  of  our  town  building  in  the  past  in 
America.  American  capital,  directed  by 
native-American  enterprise  and  brains, 
selects  a  site  and  builds  a  model  factory, 
secures  the  necessary  transportation  facil- 
ities and  puts  in  its  power  and  machines. 
Anything  else?  Yes,  the  skilled  labor 
market  is  scarce  of  men,  so  a  few  good 
houses  are  put  up  for  skilled  workmen, 
upon  whom  the  operation  of  the  plant 
depends. 

As  for  the  mass  of  foreign-born  unskilled 
workmen,  relying  upon  a  well-stocked 
market,  no  provision  is  made  for  housing, 
sanitation,  or  other  care  of  them.  This 
is  left  to  the  individual  workman  and  to 
the  speculator.  When  a  cluster  of  huts, 
tents,  or  bunk  houses  spring  up,  is  it 
because  the  immigrant  prefers  the  huts 
or  tents,  or  is  it  because  the  only  power  to 
create  standards  —  the  native-American 
power  —  has  ignored  its  obligation  ? 

It  is  the  same  with  contract  work. 
The  contractor,  in  figuring  the  cost  of 
road  building,  includes  not  only  materials, 
grades,  etc.,  but  the  cost  of  decent  hous- 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  55 

ing  for  his  American  workmen.  The  im- 
migrant workman  he  leaves  to  the 
padrone.  The  padrone  is  one  of  the 
most  anti- American  forces  in  this  country, 
and  he  exists  only  by  the  grace  of  the 
native-born  American  employer.  No  im- 
migrant body  can  impose  him  upon  an 
employer  who  does  not  find  him  useful. 
I  am  invariably  met  with  the  fact 
that  native  Americans  refuse  to  rent  to 
immigrants  because  of  their  alleged  de- 
facement of  property.  The  one  remedy 
seems  to  be  eviction  and  refusal  to  rent. 
I  have  not  yet  found  that  a  limitation 
on  boarders  in  the  rental  clause  has 
been  tried  or  that  any  effort  has  been 
made  to  teach  these  tenants  the  meaning 
and  methods  of  an  American  standard 
of  living.  I  have  not  found  that  such 
conveniences  as  an  adequate  and  acces- 
sible water  supply,  garbage  collection, 
prompt  repairs,  and  interest  in  the  well- 
being  of  the  tenants  bear  in  the  mind 
of  the  landlord  much  relation  to  care  of 
person  and  property.  The  native  Ameri- 
can thinks  of  the  immigrant  tenant  as  an 
inferior  human  being,  used  to  something 
quite  different,  and  almost  unconsciously 


56  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

brings  the  American  standard  down  to 
his  own  idea  of  the  immigrant's  capaci- 
ties. 

There  are,  of  course,  many  people  — 
not  confined  to  immigrants  —  who  are 
indifferent  to  or  incapable  of  maintaining 
an  American  standard  of  living.  Elim- 
inating these,  I  believe  that  the  native 
American  can  and  must  set  the  standard, 
pay  decent  enough  wages  to  make  it 
possible,  and  then  admit  no  excuses 
whatever  for  non-performance.  In  my 
judgment  it  is  a  fallacy  to  suppose  that 
increased  wages  and  shorter  hours  alone 
will  Americanize  America,  unless  there 
goes  with  these  things  some  education 
as  to  their  use. 

Paternalism?  I  have  in  mind  a  steel 
mill  where  the  employer  has  increased 
wages  50  per  cent,  and  established  eight- 
hour  shifts;  where  the  most  perfect 
conditions  prevail  in  his  plant,  where 
his  first-aid  and  safety-first  work  are 
excellent.  He  believes  that  to  build  com- 
pany houses  would  be  paternalism.  Al- 
most every  one  in  the  town  works  in  his 
mill.  He  has  added  5000  workmen  to  the 
village  within  a  year.  No  private  cap- 


THE   NATIVE  AMERICAN  57 

ital  will  take  the  risk  of  building  houses 
for  his  war  industry.  His  men  sleep 
5  to  15  in  a  room,  often  on  the  floor 
and  in  their  clothing ;  they  have  no  care 
and  eat  badly  prepared  food.  They 
crowd  family  houses,  destroying  privacy 
and  morality.  That  plant  employed 
last  year  34,000  men  to  keep  an  average 
of  15,000.  This  registers  the  immigrant's 
protest,  —  the  only  one  possible,  —  mov- 
ing on.  Yet  one  native-born  American 
controls  the  health,  decency,  morality, 
and  efficiency  of  some  8000  immigrant 
workmen  whose  only  protest  is  to  move 
on,  and  whose  only  future  is  high 
enough  wages  to  return  to  his  home 
country. 

And  the  worst  of  it  is  that  men  get 
used  to  these  conditions,  believing  them 
to  be  American,  and  with  this  belief  go 
the  dreams,  the  visions,  and  ambitions 
which  are  the  essence  of  good  citizenship. 
The  prospective  good  citizen  is  sacrificed 
to  the  demand  for  cheap  labor  which  is 
a  native- American  demand.  For  the 
few  hundreds  of  men  that  are  indifferent 
to  or  incapable  of  appreciating  an  Ameri- 
can standard  of  living  thousands  are 


58  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

sacrificed  daily  at  the  hearth  of  the 
indifferent,  complacent  native  American 
who  thinks  of  them  only  as  cogs  in  his 
machine  and  rarely  as  future  citizens  of 
America. 

There  is  no  more  representative  class 
of  native  Americans  in  the  popular  mind 
than  those  bearing  old  family  names. 
The  youth  of  America  read  and  store 
up  all  the  available  information  about 
them  and  aim  to  duplicate  their  achieve- 
ments in  dress,  manner,  entertainments, 
and  work.  And  yet  I  can  take  you  to 
any  one  of  the  great  estates  that  they 
occupy,  and  if  they  employ  immigrant 
labor,  you  will  find  it  housed  in  miserable 
shacks,  lacking  the  decencies  and  com- 
forts of  an  American  standard  of  living. 
You  will  find  that  the  native  Americans 
had  these  shacks  put  up  and  receive 
rent  for  them.  You  will  find  also  that 
the  immigrant  has  but  one  choice,  to  leave 
his  job  if  he  wants  something  better.  Ask 
yourself,  as  an  American  with  a  family 
dependent  upon  you,  whether  you  would 
have  the  courage  to  make  this  choice.  I 
have  in  mind  as  I  write  a  most  exclusive 
club  which  is  the  wonder  of  the  Hudson 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  59 

Valley  for  sheer  beauty  and  order ;  and 
I  see  below  the  railroad  track  its  thousand 
employees  who  toil  all  day  to  produce  that 
beauty,  housed  in  wretched  frame  build- 
ings in  bad  repair  and  crowded  with 
boarders  because  there  are  not  enough 
houses.  I  find  there  the  future  citizens 
of  America  being  brought  up  without 
regard  to  decency  and  morality,  living 
5  to  10  in  a  room,  while  the  little  native- 
born  boy  or  girl  in  the  clubhouses  has  a 
room  and  a  bath  to  himself.  Now  this 
difference  is  not  alone  the  difference  of 
wealth.  It  goes  deeper  than  that.  The 
club  owns  the  workmen's  houses ;  it  gets 
an  adequate  return  on  its  investment. 
The  trouble  is  the  native  American  does 
not  regard  the  immigrant  as  anything 
but  a  workman  —  and  so  long  as  he 
ignores  America's  interest  in  that  man 
as  a  citizen,  as  a  defender  of  America,  as 
a  voter,  as  a  future  taxpayer,  he  is  anti- 
American.  To  these  men,  preaching 
patriotism  and  freedom  in  America 
must  seem  the  height  of  insincerity 
when  contemplated  from  overcrowded 
rooms  under  a  leaky  roof.  Last  Fourth 
of  July  the  National  Americanization 


60  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

Committee  instituted  "  Americanization 
Day"  when  native-born  citizens  tendered 
receptions  to  foreign-born  citizens.  When 
foreign-born  men  wrote  saying  that  al- 
though they  had  been  here  many  years 
it  was  the  first  time  they  had  shaken 
hands  with  an  American,  it  demon- 
strated how  wide  is  the  gulf  of  our  preju- 
dice and  its  consequent  neglect.  The  pay 
envelope  has  made  a  poor  melting  pot, 
and  America  is  to-day  paying  the  cost 
of  an  experiment  that  has  failed.  When- 
ever we  have  established  lines  that  make 
our  native  Americans  inaccessible  to  our 
foreign-born  residents,  there  we  have 
established  the  unknown  quantity  in  fix- 
ing the  responsibility  for  the  immigrant 
standard  of  living,  without  which  knowl- 
edge the  truth  can  never  be  ascertained. 
What  I  am  urging  is  this :  Before  we 
assert  so  calmly  that  the  immigrant 
lowers  the  American  standard  of  living 
let  us  rest  our  case  with  the  man  higher 
up  —  if  need  be  with  the  financier  who 
supplies  the  capital  and  requires  that  all 
material  conditions  must  be  right,  but 
who  forgets  that  in  the  last  analysis  the 
success  of  any  enterprise  depends  upon 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  61 

loyal,  efficient  workmen  with  a  home  stake 
in  America. 

Another  native-American  illusion  is 
that  the  immigrant  will  not  appreciate 
our  efforts.  Since  when  has  America 
based  its  principles  of  action  upon  the 
flimsy  desire  for  appreciation  ?  Further- 
more we  expect  the  appreciation  to  be 
out  of  all  proportion  to  what  we  do.  We 
have  indeed  deteriorated  when  we  have 
come  to  regard  simple  acts  of  justice.  ^_ 
J!air  _play ^service,  obligation,  and  duty, 
as  acts  to  be  persisted  in  only  when  the 
immigrant  is  duly  appreciative!  Such 
a  stimulus  would  have  done  little  to  de- 
velop the  northwest  and  to  conquer 
the  resources  of  the  country.  The  man 
who  hesitates  to  build  houses  for  his  home- 
less or  commuting  workmen  because  it 
may  be  paternalism,  closes  the  club- 
house he  has  provided  because  it  is  not 
appreciated,  or  bewails  his  empty  play- 
ground as  a  species  of  rank  ingratitude. 
A  great  weakness  of  the  American 
character  to-day  is  its  desire  for  appre- 
ciation and  credit,  and  it  does  not  make 
for  Americanism. 
A  third  American  illusion  is  that  the 


62  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

native  American  always  thinks  of  the 
immigrants  as  getting  something  from 
America  —  wages  or  liberty  or  oppor- 
tunity or  rights.  We  forget  that  the 
majority  of  them  come  to  us  as  laborers, 
representing  a  net  contribution  of  at 
least  $1000,  which  is  the  cost  of  raising 
a  native-born  child  to  the  productive  age. 
In  these  days  of  prosperity,  of  new 
vision  in  business,  of  expansion  marked 
by  a  remarkable  greatness  of  spirit,  it 
is  no  time  to  forget  that  the  very  indus- 
tries which  are  at  present  by  way  of  put- 
ting America  in  the  front  ranks  of  trade 
and  commerce  are  dependent  upon  im- 
migrant labor. 

We  know  in  a  general  way  that  the  im- 
migrant is  the  possessor  of  much  brawn 
and  muscle.  But  it  is  characteristic  of 
us  that  we  think  of  him  always  as  a 
job  hunter,  not  as  a  producer.  His  may 
be  the  opportunity ;  but  we  never  reflect 
that  ours  may  be  the  profit.  The  big 
mine  owner,  the  subway  contractor, 
the  chief  engineer  of  the  railroads,  the 
canal  builder  have  a  practical  knowledge 
of  just  where,  and  how  largely,  the  im- 
migrant comes  into  new  America's  scheme. 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  63 

But  the  average  American  has  no  grasp 
of  the  full  significance  of  the  immi- 
grant's immediate  and  present  service 
to  him  and  to  the  nation,  in  a  purely 
present  and  industrial  way. 

He  knows  that  a  big  army  of  immi- 
grants armed  with  pick  and  shovel  is 
down  there  in  the  subway  cavity;  and 
he  knows  that  they  build  the  roads  over 
which  he  spins  his  motor.  Still  he  does 
not  really  grasp  the  fact  that  the  rail- 
road that  carries  him,  the  clothes  he 
wears,  the  cigars  he  smokes,  the  furniture 
he  puts  in  his  house  are  made  by  immi- 
grant hands.  Take  iron  and  steel,  the 
strategic  industry,  so  to  speak,  in  Amer- 
ica to-day.  The  Federal  Immigration 
Commission  found  that  57.7  per  cent 
of  the  workmen  in  this  industry  were 
foreign  born ;  and  if  you  add  the  work- 
men of  foreign-born  parentage,  the  per- 
centage mounts  to  71.7.  And  so  it 
goes  through  a  long  list  of  essential  in- 
dustries —  in  sugar  refining,  85  per  cent 
of  the  workmen  are  foreign  born;  in 
bituminous  coal  mining,  61.9  per  cent; 
and  so  on.  And  there  is  no  one  to  take 
his  place.  There  are  to-day  three  jobs  for 


64  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

every  two  workmen,  and  we  are  calling 
out  our  reserve  of  women  who  have 
never  before  worked  for  wages.  We 
often  hear  of  the  displaced  American 
workmen,  but  when  we  look  for  them,  we 
generally  find  they  have  moved  up  in 
the  economic  scale. 

What  other  value  are  immigrants  in 
American  life?  What  percentage  do 
they  possess  of  the  social  opportunity 
and  liberty  of  America?  What  percent- 
age do  they  contribute  to  it?  What 
percentage  are  they  permitted  to  con- 
tribute to  it? 

Some  immigrants  come  to  us  with 
racial  powers,  instincts,  and  suscepti- 
bilities, which,  however  modified  by  years 
of  peasant  toil,  have  great  potential 
value  for  America.  Some  come  to  us 
with  vision  trained  for  centuries  in  beauty 
of  line  and  color,  with  the  skilled  hands 
of  races  that  have  been  shaping  arch  or 
temple  or  cathedral  for  thousands  of  years. 
They  feel  beauty  and  mobility  of  outline 
as  only  those  feel  them  who  have  lived 
with  them  for  generations.  What  be- 
comes of  these  capacities  over  here? 
Does  America  give  immigrants  the  chance 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  65 

to  use  them  ?  Does  America  even  know 
they  exist? 

Another  illusion  is  that  the  present 
races  coming  to  America  are  not  easily 
assimilated,  and  should  they  be,  they 
would  give  America  an  undesirable  type. 

What,  after  all,  is  Americanism  ?  What 
is  the  destiny  of  America  ?  What  do  we 
want  it  to  be  ?  What,  in  the  great  evolu- 
tion of  nations,  is  it  bound  to  be  ?  Until 
the  average  American  meets  and  answers 
these  questions  squarely,  we  cannot  set- 
tle the  question  of  what  races  are  best 
for  the  future  of  America.  Miss  Repplier 
quotes  Dr.  Horace  Kallen  as  saying, 
"Only  men  who  are  alike  in  origin  and 
spirit  and  not  abstractly  can  be  truly 
equal,  and  maintain  that  inward  una- 
nimity of  action  and  outlook  which  makes 
a  national  life."  And,  says  Miss  Rep- 
plier, rightly,  "We  have  no  mutual  under- 
standing, no  common  denominator." 

We  have  not.  The  first  Americans 
whose  opportunity,  yes,  and  whose  re- 
sponsibility it  was  to  produce  these,  have 
failed  ignominiously  to  do  so.  "An 
Englishman,"  says  Miss  Repplier,  "  knows 
that  a  Russian  Jew  cannot  in  five  years 


66  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

or  in  twenty-five  years  become  English; 
that  his  standards  and  ideals  are  not 
convertible  into  English  standards  and 
ideals.  A  Frenchman  does  not  see  in  a 
Bulgarian  or  a  Czech  the  making  of 
another  Frenchman. " 

True,  but  what  is  an  American  ?  Is  he 
an  Anglo-Saxon  racial  type,  and  if  so,  by 
what  law?  Do  we  desire  him  to  be  this? 

I  do  not  despise  the  conclusion  of  eth- 
nologists, but  they  seem  to  have  so  few 
conclusions  and  so  many  theories.  And 
the  root  of  them  seems  to  be,  not  ex- 
perience, but  apprehension.  Meanwhile, 
j^see  all  around  m^  valifint  Americans. 
Southern  European  by  birth  and  tradi- 
tionA"mpi*if»fl.'Qg  PQW  inspirit  flnfl  -loyal t-V 

anjT  tendency.  These  men  and  women 
have  mastered  the  opportunity  —  for 
they  had  to  seek  and  improve  it  them- 
selves —  to  become  assimilated.  In  spite 
of  the  thousands  of  their  countrymen 
among  us,  still  un-American,  I  am  con- 
vinced of  two  things:  That  America 
can  control  its  own  destiny,  that  one  of  the 
greatest  obstacles  has  been  slothful  neg- 
lect, another  obstacle,  nativism;  and 
that  the  way  to  attain  control  of  our 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  67 

destiny  is  by  aggressive,  not  passive, 
Americanism.  When  this  is  under  way, 
it  will  be  easy  enough  to  sort  out  and  deal 
separately  and  finally  with  undesirable 
races  and  types  or  those  that  have  no 
desire  to  become  Americans. 

In  the  midst  of  all  our  discussion  of 
to-day  about  a  prepared  America,  there 
is  no  national  policy  emerging.  We 
see  Congress  half-heartedly  bolstering 
up  the  army  and  navy.  We  see  the 
Federal  Bureau  of  Immigration  with- 
out adequate  authority  at  work  upon 
a  Federal  system  of  employment 
exchanges,  a  system  which  can  be  over- 
turned by  successors  in  office.  We  see 
the  Bureau  of  Naturalization  at  work  on 
a  citizenship  program  into  which  it  jumps 
without  preparation,  preempting  a  field 
long  occupied  by  its  neighbor  in  the 
Interior  Department,  the  Bureau  of 
Education,  without  a  suggestion  of  real 
cooperation.  We  see  the  Bureau  of 
Education  with  an  unlimited  field  before 
it,  hampered  by  state  lines  and  no  funds. 
We  have  laws  demanding  that  an  alien 
shall  learn  English  and  have  a  knowledge 
of  the  Constitution  in  order  to  become 


68  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

a  citizen,  yet  leaving  it  to  the  ward 
boss  to  supply  the  information.  We 
see  the  various  departments  dealing  with 
various  phases  of  preparedness  pursuing 
a  path  of  departmental  routine,  waste, 
and  duplication.  No  clear  uniform  note 
runs  through  it  all.  There  is  little 
apparent  indication  that  times  have 
changed  and  new  issues  and  opportuni- 
ties are  presented  to  our  American  govern- 
ment. We  see  the  field  of  transportation 
and  distribution  cut  into  small  sections 
by  local  regulations  and  local  compe- 
tition. One  state  is  pitted  against 
another  to  secure  labor  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  individual  state  —  with  no 
thought  of  national  needs. 

Surely  we  cannot,  in  all  fairness,  ex- 
pect the  immigrant  to  distribute  himself 
wisely,  to  protect  himself  adequately, 
to  educate  himself  intelligently,  to  become 
a  willing  citizen  without  the  full  coopera- 
tion of  the  native  American.  Yet  upon 
this  whole  matter  we  have  no  national 
sense  of  responsibility,  no  national  con- 
sciousness. If  ajjractical  bill  providing 
for  a  national  Americanization  policy, 
to  be  administered  by  national  authority 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  69 

but  leaving  to  states  and  counties  and 
cities  their  diie^rights  and  obligations, 
^vere  at  this  moment  before  Congress,  it 
would  have  small  chance  of  being  con- 
sidered. The  trouble  is  that  we  have 
no  convincecT 


behind  It  to  support  it. 

We  have  not  had  a  vision  of  many 
peoples  making  one  nation,  but  rather  of 
a  few  people  being  worked  for  by  others. 
Even  kindhearted  employers  with  "wel- 
fare departments"  for  their  men  have 
little  realization  of  their  immigrant  work- 
men as  future  American  people.  In 
many  cases  the  welfare  provisions  and 
company  housing  specifically  do  not  apply 
to  the  immigrant  force.  The  average 
American  housewife  does  not  think  of 
the  immigrant  and  her  future  in  America 
when  she  needs  a  servant,  but  wonders 
what  nationality  will  suit  her  best.  I 
should  like  to  ask  how  many  of  our  house- 
wives, even  our  suffragist  housewives, 
know  the  attitude  of  their  foreign-born 
servants  towards  America  or  how  well 
they  are  fitted  for  citizenship  ?  Are  they 
regarded  as  a  civic  factor  of  any  impor- 
tance? The  average  American  officer 


70  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

regards  the  immigrant  as  a  trouble- 
maker; but  how  many  cities  compile 
their  laws  intelligently  in  a  language 
the  immigrant  can  read,  so  that  he  may 
not  become  one?  It  is  the  native-born 
American  who  must  separate  the  wheat 
from  the  chaff  before  we  can  estimate 
the  wheat  and  dispose  of  the  chaff. 

We  cannot  treat  the  immigrant  as  if  he 
were  something  to  be  absorbed,  automat- 
ically, by  inevitable  chemical  reaction, 
in  the  course  of  time.  He  is  a  living, 
changing,  creative  organism,  needing  at- 
tention at  every  minute,  and  with  something 
to  contribute  at  every  point.  From  the 
moment  he  arrives  in  America  he  needs 
the  creative,  aggressive  attention  of  Ameri- 
can institutions  if  he  is  to  become  a  good 
American.  What  he  gets,  when  he  gets 
anything,  is  a  chance  to  touch  here  and 
there  American  institutions  adapted  to 
a  native-born  population  and  barely  ful- 
filling the  needs  of  the  native  born.  Take 
the  case  of  the  immigrant  who  arrives 
at  Ellis  Island  and  goes,  let  us  say,  to  a 
New  England  mill  town.  Originally  it 
was  a  conservative  little  colonial  town  of 
1000  population  with  no  large  industries, 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  71 

and  with  schools,  churches,  and  a  library 
adapted  to  the  population.  The  intro- 
duction of  several  factories  increases  the 
population  fourfold,  and  75  per  cent  of 
the  newcomers  are  foreign  born,  need- 
ing especially  to  profit  by  the  organized 
institutions  of  America.  But  what  really 
happens  is  that  the  institutions  adapted 
to  the  original  1000  native  Americans 
remain  exactly  the  same  —  schools, 
churches,  library,  court,  and  houses,  for 
the  host  of  new  Americans  to  fit  into  them 
as  best  they  can.  In  other  words,  al- 
though immigrants  may  make  up  from 
one  half  to  two  thirds  of  that  town  they 
do  not  figure  10  per  cent  in  its  activities  or 
10  per  cent  in  its  government  or  its  facili- 
ties. 

The  native-born  American  has  set 
up  some  very  important  and  flourishing 
institutions  to  perpetuate  the  ideals  of 
Americanism  and  to  preserve  the  things 
dear  to  him.  These  have  come  also  to 
be  regarded  as  the  institutions  for 
Americanizing  the  immigrant.  If  they 
Americanize  our  native-born  youth, 
why  not  our  foreign-born  peoples?  The 
native  American  has  adapted  them  to  his 


72  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

own  needs  and  assumes  that  they  will 
do  for  every  one.  Will  they,  without 
any  further  attention  on  his  part? 

The  public  school  comes  first.  It  is 
the  first  aid  to  the  nation.  It  also  repre- 
sents a  fundamental  principle  and  obliga- 
tion in  American  civilization.  Of  the 
13,000,000  men  and  women  born  in 
other  lands,  3,000,000  of  them  were 
unable  to  speak  English,  according  to 
the  1910  census,  and  only  38,000  were  en- 
rolled in  our  public  schools  to  learn  it. 
Many  important  communities,  in  such 
important  industrial  states  as  Illinois, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Connecticut,  where 
the  population  is  at  least  one  half  immi- 
grant, do  not  maintain  any  classes  what- 
ever where  English  can  be  learned. 

Even  where  night  schools  exist,  they 
are  likely  to  be  conducted  in  an  experi- 
mental or  detached  way  —  as  a  benevo- 
lent "extension"  of  the  public  educa- 
tional system  rather  than  as  a  legitimate, 
highly  important,  and  necessary  part  of 
public  policy.  In  a  city  in  which  75  per 
cent  of  the  population  is  either  foreign 
born  or  of  foreign  parentage,  the  presi- 
dent of  the  board  of  education  said  this 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  73 

year :  "More  night  schools  for  foreigners 
—  well,  I  don't  know.  I  am  highly  in- 
terested in  the  technical  night  high 
schools.  If  there  is  any  money  left  after 
these  are  fully  organized,  I  will  see  that 
it  goes  into  classes  for  English  to 
foreigners." 

But  there  never  is  anything  left.  On 
that  basis  we  shall  get  nowhere.  If  the 
alien  is  to  be  taught  English  in  this 
country  only  after  every  form  of  education 
life  is  "fully  organized"  —  he  will  by 
that  time  have  reached  the  point  where 
he  either  cannot  or  will  not  be  taught. 
When  will  America  learn  that  teaching 
immigrants  English  and  requiring  them 
to  learn  it  is  a  fundamental  necessity,  a 
condition  of  national  vitality  ? 

The  Bureau  of  Naturalization  is  pub- 
lishing a  statement  that  during  the  past 
year  600  cities  have  conducted,  initiated, 
or  largely  extended  night-school  instruc- 
tion for  aliens.  With  the  usual  optimism 
we  point  with  pride  to  what  America  is 
doing  with  the  native-American  tax- 
payer's money.  Do  we  not  want  to 
know  how  effective  it  is  ?  In  how  many 
of  these  600  cities  has  this  night-school 


74  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

work  been  put  on  a  basis  adequate  to  the 
numbers  of  the  foreign-born  population  ? 
In  how  many  of  the  600  has  a  really  ade- 
quate system  of  instruction  been  worked 
out  —  adapted  to  the  needs,  trades, 
shifts,  hours  of  the  men,  providing  for 
proper  classification,  textbooks,  teachers 
with  vigor  and  understanding?  How 
long  have  the  terms  been  and  did  the 
immigrants  attend? 

We  should  naturally  expect  New  Eng- 
land to  lead  in  this  phase  of  an  Americani- 
zation policy.  According  to  the  data 
gathered  by  the  Bureau  of  Education  in 
1915,  Maine  had  15  towns  with  over  1000 
foreign  born  in,  the  population,  with  no 
evening  schools.  Massachusetts  had  28, 
New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  each  6, 
and  Rhode  Island  4.  In  Connecticut 
there  are  15  towns  with  a  foreign-born 
population  of  over  1000  that  have  no 
evening  school  or  other  municipal  pro- 
vision for  learning  citizenship  and  Eng- 
lish. There  is  no  town  in  the  state  that 
has  adequate  or  anything  like  adequate 
provisions  for  this.  Yet  New  Haven  has 
approximately  50,000  foreign  born, 
Bridgeport  40,000,  Hartford  35,000, 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  75 

Meriden  10,000,  Waterbury  25,000,  Stam- 
ford 12,000.  Concerning  Connecticut  the 
lament  of  nativism  that  the  "State  is 
rapidly  being  foreignized"  is  coming  loud 
and  strong.  And  it  is  true.  How,  with 
the  situation  described  above,  could  it 
be  otherwise  ? 

For  the  immigrant  in  the  courts  our 
cherished  "equality  before  the  law"  is 
not  realized.  There  have  been  a  great 
many  studies  and  investigations  into  the 
"immigrant's  influence  on  crime"  and 
his  responsibility  for  this  or  that  per- 
centage of  it.  But  there  has  never  been  a 
constructive  effort  to  make  the  machinery 
of  the  law  adaptable  to  the  immigrant. 
With  thoroughgoing  nativism,  the  native- 
born  Americans  have  set  up  the  kinds 
of  courts  they  need  for  themselves,  and 
have  installed  forms  of  procedure  that 
they  know  and  understand.  They  pro- 
ceed on  the  assumption  that  every  man 
knows  the  law,  and  that  every  man  can 
tell  his  tale  in  English.  These  assump- 
tions were  justified,  back  in  the  days  when 
our  courts  were  founded.  A  man  used 
to  the  town-meeting  scheme  of  govern- 
ment knew  of  what  government  consisted 


76  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

and  what  it  entailed.  In  answer  to  re- 
quests for  interpreters,  for  the  distribution 
of  information  concerning  laws,  for  modi- 
fications of  judgments  where  ignorance 
was  the  cause  of  the  violation,  we  are 
constantly  met  with  the  unsympathetic 
statement  that  if  the  system  is  good 
enough  for  Americans  and  for  America, 
it  is  good  enough  for  the  Italians  and 
the  Germans  and  the  Irish  and  the  Jews 
and  the  Russians.  We  so  seldom  think 
of  laws  and  courts  as  educational,  as 
incentives  to  right  doing,  but  always 
as  punitive,  even  though  this  may  be 
the  immigrant's  first  contact  with  this 
leading  American  institution. 

An  immigrant  lands  in  America  and 
gets  whatever  work  he  can.  He  does  not 
know,  and  no  governmental  agency  takes 
the  trouble  to  tell  him,  what  particular 
restrictions  there  are  on  any  given  occu- 
pation. No  one  explains  to  him  for  which 
job  he  has  to  have  a  license  or  which  occu- 
pations are  open  only  to  citizens.  He 
does  not  know  our  ordinances  about  the 
disposal  of  garbage  or  ashes.  He  may 
come  from  a  region  where  there  are  no 
free  schools,  and  he  does  not  know  that 


THE  NATIVE  AMERICAN  77 

the  law  in  this  country  obliges  him  to 
send  his  children  to  school.  Unwittingly, 
with  the  best  intentions  in  the  world,  he 
may  offend  in  almost  every  relation  of 
his  life.  Suppose  that  he  does  offend 
and  is  brought  into  court.  If  he  cannot 
speak  English,  he  is  supposed  to  rely  on 
the  court  interpreter.  In  many  places 
there  is  no  court  interpreter.  In  Chicago, 
a  short  time  ago,  an  investigation  of 
courts  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  judge 
sometimes  had  to  order  volunteer  inter- 
preters to  leave  the  room  because  they 
were  interpreting  wrongly  time  after 
time.  The  judges  stated  that  there  were  a 
few  men  of  that  kind  who  made  a  practice 
of  hanging  around  the  courts  and  inter- 
preting wrongly  whenever  it  was  to  their 
advantage  to  do  so. 

Unable  to  make  himself  understood, 
and  without  competent  and  honest  assist- 
ance from  an  interpreter,  the  alien  is 
placed  at  an  additional  disadvantage  in 
our  courts.  Ignorant  of  his  rights,  not 
understanding  what  his  offense  is,  he  is 
tried  and  convicted,  and  leaves  the  court 
wondering  what  he  has  done  that  justifies 
it  in  branding  him  as  a  law  breaker.  His 


78  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

respect  for  American  law  and  for  Ameri- 
can justice  does  not  outlive  many  ex- 
periences of  this  kind,  and  another  door 
to  Americanism  is  closed. 

Our  journals  are  also  nativistic.  We 
are  known  as  a  country  ruled  and 
governed  by  our  newspapers,  which  are 
said  to  be  able  to  make  and  unmake 
political  parties,  and  to  raise  a  politician 
or  statesman  to  a  dizzy  pinnacle  of  fame 
or  else  to  cast  him  headlong  into  oblivion. 
The  average  paper  has  page  after  page  — 
on  Saturdays  and  Sundays,  section  after 
section  —  full  of  articles  that  are  sugges- 
tive and  instructive  to  those  who  have 
their  bearings  already,  but  a  helpless, 
hopeless  maze  to  those  who  have  come  to 
America  so  recently  that  they  still  need 
an  occasional  signpost  to  guide  them 
through  our  political  mazes.  It  seems 
to  be  assumed  that  the  readers  know 
the  form,  the  history,  the  value,  and  the 
significance  of  American  institutions, 
and  need  only  to  have  them  attended  to 
or  referred  to,  the  more  casually  the 
better.  Some  of  our  most  significant 
journals  take  apparent  pride  in  being 
cryptic.  They  ignore  the  presence  in 


THE   NATIVE   AMERICAN  79 

this  country  of  millions  who  need  to  be 
informed,  who  ardently  desire  informa- 
tion, about  our  history  and  our  institu- 
tions, and  who  do  not  know  where  they 
can  obtain  it  from  an  English-speaking 
source. 

About  9,000,000  people  in  this  country 
read  foreign-language  newspapers.  Some 
of  them  are  persons  who  read  these  papers 
largely  from  necessity  while  they  are 
learning  English,  and  some  of  them 
never  intend  to  learn,  and  never  do 
learn,  English  at  all.  An  immigrant  who 
arrives  in  this  country  without  being 
able  to  speak  English  finds  that  it  takes 
a  considerable  time  to  learn  it  —  the 
length  of  time  depending  on  the  place 
he  finds  work  in  and  the  people  he  works 
with.  Now  in  this  period,  long  or  short, 
which  must  elapse  before  the  alien 
learns  English,  the  foreign-language  news- 
paper could  be  an  invaluable  Ameri- 
canizing agent.  But  it  cannot  be  so 
without  the  cooperation  of  the  native 
press  and  native  Americans.  And  that 
we  have  never  given.  Our  big  manu- 
facturers advertise  in  thousands  of  these 
papers  to  sell  goods.  Otherwise  we  do 


80  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

not  concern  ourselves  with  them  at  all, 
except  to  regard  all  with  suspicion  when 
we  learn  of  the  disloyalty  of  one.  Many 
of  the  editors  of  these  papers,  themselves 
not  Americanized  in  any  complete  sense, 
are  making  inadequate  but  persistent  ef- 
forts to  connect  their  people  with  Ameri- 
can institutions  to  lead  them  to  become 
Americans,  real  citizens  of  this  republic. 
They  get  little  help  from  us.  The  Ameri- 
can press  is  increasingly  proud  of  its 
position  as  one  of  the  very  greatest  of 
our  social  institutions.  It  is  run  for  labor, 
for  capital,  for  society,  for  business,  for 
the  man  in  the  street ;  but  it  is  run  very 
little  for  the  foreign-born  citizen  or  alien 
who  against  odds  is  trying  to  accomplish 
his  own  assimilation.  Yet  this  is  exactly 
the  task  in  which  the  newspaper  that 
considered  his  interests  and  his  needs 
could  help  him  most. 

The  public  library,  especially  in  cities 
where  public  school  branches  are  main- 
tained, has  a  great  opportunity  to  reach 
the  adult  immigrant  in  his  own  neighbor- 
hood, in  community  reading  rooms,  by 
providing  newspapers,  books  in  the  native 
language,  simple  books  about  America, 


THE   NATIVE   AMERICAN  81 

either  in  English  or  translated  into  the 
native  tongue.  Whenever  public  library 
facilities  are  extended  to  immigrants, 
there  is  ample  testimony  to  the  en- 
thusiasm with  which  they  are  received. 
A  few  years  ago  the  management  of  the 
New  York  City  public  library  in  a  very 
interesting  report  gave  some  startling 
figures  covering  the  patronage  of  the 
public  libraries  by  the  foreign  born  of 
New  York  City,  showing  that  they  were 
exceptionally  eager  and  persistent  readers, 
and  of  the  more  serious  forms  of  litera- 
ture—  history,  philosophy,  science,  and 
drama.  In  hundreds  of  industrial  towns 
of  the  country  the  public  library  is  a 
virtual  mausoleum,  a  monument  to 
culture,  little  used  but  "always  there." 
Whole  sections  of  the  town  that  have 
never  found  the  way  to  the  library,  and 
who  might  not  be  made  welcome  if  they 
did,  are  starving  for  some  recreative  in- 
terest, some  sources  of  information  which 
they  could  manage. 

But  here  occurs  a  stumblingblock. 
The  native  American  has  a  prejudice 
against  furnishing  books  in  a  foreign 
language  and  often  proceeds  on  the  theory 


82  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

that  although  he  does  nothing  to  furnish 
facilities  for  learning  English,  it  is  better 
that  the  immigrant  should  read  nothing 
while  he  waits. 

It  is  idle  to  fear  that  the  foreign- 
language  book  is  an  obstacle  to  Ameri- 
canization. Anything  that  increases  the 
alien's  intelligence,  and  especially  his  in- 
formation about  America,  is  an  aid,  not 
a  hindrance.  Outside  of  the  large  cities 
few  libraries  have  any  collection  of  foreign 
books.  Those  that  do  are  likely  to  have 
an  entirely  academic  or  classical  assort- 
ment. A  few  weeks  ago,  in  investigating 
the  public  library  facilities  of  one  of  our 
big  steel  towns,  now  given  over  to  the 
production  of  munitions,  it  was  discovered 
that  the  foreign  language  "collection" 
adapted  to  the  races  in  the  town  con- 
sisted of  one  Polish  book.  In  one  in- 
dustrial town  which  is  heavily  immigrant 
a  public  library  a  few  weeks  ago  opened 
a  branch  in  a  foreign  bank  —  and,  as 
might  be  expected,  it  is  flourishing. 

One  of  the  chief  American  grievances 
against  the  immigrant  is  that  he  does 
not  spend  or  invest  his  money  here. 
Until  the  establishment  of  the  postal 


THE  NATIVE   AMERICAN  83 

savings  banks  he  had  little  encouragement 
to  do  so.  Here  again  we  cling  stubbornly 
to  our  nativism,  and  maintain  that 
arrangements  that  are  satisfactory  to 
the  native  born  are  good  enough  for  the 
foreign  born  as  well.  Few  banks  have 
foreign  departments,  although  of  late 
the  number  is  increasing.  The  ordinary 
bank  is  not  adapted  to  the  immigrant. 
He  is  intimidated  by  it  and  is  not  always 
welcome.  That  59  per  cent  of  the  pres- 
ent investors  in  the  Postal  Savings 
Banks  are  foreign  born,  and  that  this 
59  per  cent  owns  72  per  cent  of  all  the 
money  now  on  deposit  is  significant 
proof  that  the  immigrant  mil  use  our 
banks  as  an  institution. 

If  I  have  given  the  impression  that  the 
entire  responsibility  for  Americanism  is 
the  native  Americans,  I  have  failed  in  my 
purpose.  I  have  but  attempted  to  restore 
the  balance  and  point  out  the  really  con- 
trolling factor  in  Americanism. 

If  I  have  failed  to  note  the  many  very 
important  and  excellent  movements  now 
under  way  in  the  name  of  reform  and  paid 
by  benevolence,  it  is  not  that  I  under- 
estimate their  value.  It  is  because  I 


84  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

want  the  native  American  to  realize  that 
reform  and  philanthropy  are  no  more 
now  to  be  the  custodians  of  Americanism 
than  when  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence was  signed.  It  is  the  average  busi- 
ness man  in  his  plant  and  the  average 
official  in  his  government  office  that  must 
preserve  it  in  every  thought,  act,  and 
ambition  of  the  day's  routine  work  — 
carrying  always  the  overhead  charge  of 
patriotism  and  nationalism. 

This  fixing  of  initial  responsibility  does 
not  mean  that  the  immigrant  has  no 
responsibility.  Far  from  it.  He  must 
be  ready  to  stay  in  America,  to  become 
a  citizen,  to  adopt  American  standards, 
to  obey  our  laws,  to  meet  his  obligations, 
to  do  his  duty,  to  assume  his  responsi- 
bilities for,  as  well  as  to  exercise,  his 
rights.  But  he  must  know  what  these 
are.  He  must  realize  that  the  native 
American  knows  what  they  are  and  will 
set  him  a  good  example.  He  must  be  told 
that  he  is  expected  to  meet  the  require- 
ments or  America  does  not  want  him  and 
will  not  keep  him.  Our  admission  and 
exclusion  laws  serve  no  such  notice  on 
him.  The  liter  acytest  is  a  plain  evasion 


THE   NATIVE   AMERICAN  85 

of  the  native  American's  responsibility 
and  a  lazy"way  of  thinking  outthe  prob- 
lem. We  native  Americans  in  business 
or  in  office  have  never  addressed  our- 
selves seriously  to  the  task  of  jnaking 
Americans  or  nationalizing  America. 
WtelTl^TST^wS^EinSTC  as  strong  a 
nation  as  we  have  bridges  and  railways 
and  banks. 

It  is  possible  that  we  have  been  ad- 
mitting too  many  people  of  too  wide  a 
variety  for  the  native  American  to 
Americanize.  It  is  certainly  true  that 
we  should  hesitate  to  admit  many  others 
until  we  have  demonstrated  our  ability 
to  provide  an  assimilation  policy  for  the 
nation.  We  cannot  forever  depend  upon 
the  missionary  for  the  Americanization 
of  aliens.  ShalL.  we  close  the  jdgojrs^  as 
the  only  w^,y  to  preserve  Americanism? 
e  a  confession  of  our  utter 


failure  to"""3eaT"  in  ar^atesmanlike  way 

or  national 


situation  "w^  us  ? 

It^eems  to  me  that  our  real  enemy  is 
not  an  aggressive  foreignism,  but  a 
passive,  complacent  Americanism  or 
nativism.  What  we  really  need  to  fear 


86  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

is,  not  that  we  shall  be  invaded  by  civili- 
zations and  ideals  we  cannot  assimilate, 
but  that  we  shall  fail  to  develop  and 
perpetuate  and  extend  to  all  Americans 
the  civilization  and  the  ideals  we  firmly 
believe  to  be  American. 

I  consider  that  a  most  dangerous 
fallacy  in  this  country  to-day  is  the 
belief  that  the  evils  that  have  over- 
taken us  through  the  immigrant  are 
the  result  of  an  undue  expansion  of  our 
hospitality,  an  undue  breadth  of  interpre- 
tation of  America  as  the  land  of  liberty, 
open  to  all.  What  we  are  really  suffering 
from  is  not  undue  expansion  but  undue 
contraction,  a  determined  withdrawal 
of  native  Americans  from  the  real  situa- 
tion in  America,  a  positive  refusal  to 
face  their  destiny,  a  stupid  neglect  to 
provide  anything  for  the  immigrant  but 
a  job. 

It  seems  to  me  the  height  of  complacent 
nativism  to  ascribe  our  social  and  political 
evils  to  unrestricted  immigration,  when  as 
a  matter  of  fact  we  have  never  developed 
facilities  for  assimilating  them  or  given 
the  matter  much  constructive  attention 
of  any  kind.  We  have  no  information 


THE  NATIVE   AMERICAN  87 

concerning  the  numbers  and  kinds  of 
immigrants  which  our  country  and  our 
institutions  can  assimilate,  and  until  we 
have  these  we  are  not  in  a  position  for 
judgment. 

I  believe  emphatically  that  unless 
America  can  show  itself  worthy  of  its 
traditions  and  opportunities,  we  should 
not  be  honored  nor  sought  as  "  an  asylum 
for  the  oppressed,"  nor  be  regarded  as 
"a  refuge  from  tyranny,"  and  that  we 
should  close  our  doors  and  put  up  a  sign 
that  means  what  we  say.  I  am  equally 
positive  that  we  should  give  a  construc- 
tive policy  a  fair  trial  —  starting  at  Ellis 
Island  and  following  the  alien  to  the 
last  hamlet  with  information,  advice,  and 
protection,  with  assurance  of  equality 
before  the  law  in  all  respects,  and  giving 
him  the  full  guarantees  of  our  Constitu- 
tion. .If  under  these  conditions  he  pre- 
fers his  JiomR  ln.ngiifl.gft  to  ours,  pays  his 
allegiance  to  a  country  other  than 
America,  sends  his_^ayjngs  home  to  be 
invested,  persists  in  a  second-rate_stand- 
ard  of  livjggj  asserts  his  rights  but  re- 
fuses tq_  meet  his  duties,  reads  the 
foreign  language  press  instead^  of  the 


88  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

American,  joins  the  racial  society  instead 
^         club,  —  then  w^shgJl  know 


the  fault  is  not  the  native  American's, 
and  we  can  put  up  the  bars  with  a  clear 
conscience  and  with  courage  in  our  hearts. 
Americanism  faces  the  future  and  is 
courageous.  Nativism  faces  the  past 
and  is  apprehensive.  Never  in  the  his- 
tory of  nations  shall  we  have  a  greater 
opportunity  to  attain  stability  and  lead- 
ership than  now.  The  native  American 
ha.sj]lJh.fc  own  hands  tjift  power  to  build 
a  great  future  for  his  land.  He  has  the 
jieeded  qualities,  too  ;  he  has  an  idealism 
jjuch  as  the  world  never  witnessed  before, 
in  scT  High  a  degree  as  fcTseem  naive  ~br 
childish  to  citizens  of  older  races  dyed  in 
intrigue  and  used  to  always  looking  for 
the  hidden  motive  under  every  ap- 
parently open  move.  He  has  courage 
and  a  faith  in  liberty  detached  though  it 
sometimes  is  from  his  daily  life.  And  I 
am  one  of  those  who  hold  that  he  still 
believes  in  equality  —  in  spite  of  the 
manifold  contradictions  we  see  all  about 
us. 

But  he  is,  as  we  have  seen,  blind  beyond 
parallel  to  his  opportunities  —  to  a  de- 


THE   NATIVE  AMERICAN  89 

gree  that  makes  us  question  sometimes 
whether  he  has  not,  after  all,  committed 
the  unpardonable  sin  of  sinning  against 
the  light.  He  has  been  stupid,  foolish, 
trivial.  He  has  been  content  to  treat 
his  belief  in  liberty  and  equality  as  many 
a  man  treats  his  religion  —  as  something 
precious,  but  not  to  be  used  in  daily  life. 
It  is  not  too  late  for  the  American  to 
face  about  from  his  nativism,  from  his  con- 
tentment with  considering  only  the  needs 
and  interests  of  the  native  born,  and  to 
consider  the  needs  of  America  as  a  whole, 
America  as  he  sees  it  and  meets  it  every 
day,  in  his  shop  or  mill,  —  the  America 
of  the  native  born  and  the  foreign  born 
as  well.  Let  him  but  recognize  once  for 
all  that  the  foreigner's  needs  are  the  same 
as  his  needs,  that  everyone  wants  a  decent 
home  and  a  place  to  sit  in,  and  book  or 
paper  to  read,  a  safe  place  to  keep  his 
savings,  a  chance  for  himself  and  his 
family  to  keep  well,  —  all  the  varied  needs 
of  the  body  and  the  soul,  —  let  him  but 
recognize  that  the  alien  and  the  native- 
born  both  need  and  desire  these  things, 
and  then  make  it  his  responsibility  to 
provide  them  and  the  battle  will  be  won. 


90  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

We  are  the  great  adventure  of  the 
twentieth  century.  And  the  foes  we  have 
to  fear  are  not  the  hosts  that  come  to  us 
to  profit  by  our  liberty  and  opportunity, 
but  the  lack  of  wisdom  and  of  courage 
that  makes  us  unfit  to  administer  our 
heritage  and  to  meet  our  destiny. 
Nativism  is  no  substitute  for  American" 
ism. 


CHAPTER  IV 
AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS 

WHEN  is  a  citizen  not  a  citizen?  The 
great  game  of  hide  and  seek  in  America 
might  well  be  called  citizenship.  Every 
naturalized  male  alien  is  a  citizen  as  long 
as  he  stays  here ;  but  if  his  home  country 
was  Turkey,  it  is  not  safe  for  him  to  get 
back  into  its  jurisdiction.  In  New  York 
state  the  alien  waits  five  years  to  become 
a  citizen  and  vote ;  in  Nebraska  and  half 
a  dozen  other  states  he  has  only  to  declare 
his  intention  to  become  a  citizen  and  then 
qualify  under  the  election  law.  We  deny 
men  the  right  to  work  in  certain  occupa- 
tions unless  they  are  citizens,  yet  we  make 
them  wait  five  years  to  become  citizens, 
meanwhile  failing  to  provide  them  with 
facilities  for  meeting  the  educational  re- 
quirements for  citizenship.  We  tolerate 
a  system  of  seasonal  labor  and  shifting 
of  the  working  population  which  makes 

91 


92  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

it  physically  impossible  for  the  migratory 
workman  to  meet  the  legal  requirements. 
We  permit  women  to  vote  and  still  retain 
the  law  that  naturalization  follows  the 
husband  or  father  —  thereby  making  it 
possible  for  the  alien  woman  who  marries 
a  citizen  or  is  the  child  of  a  naturalized 
citizen  to  vote  as  soon  as  she  complies 
with  the  residence  law,  however  ignorant 
she  may  be.  At  the  same  time  we  deny 
the  privilege  of  citizenship  to  native-born 
American  women  who  marry  aliens.  One 
of  the  great  questions  facing  us  to-day  is 
the  adaptation  of  our  citizenship  require- 
ments to  the  needs  of  the  country.  We 
cannot  have  real  Americanization  until 
this  is  done.  A  man  or  woman  unfit  for 
citizenship  is  not  wanted  in  America. 
The  fit  man  or  woman  should  be  in  every 
way  encouraged  to  become  the  best  kind 
of  citizen  and  to  remain  so. 

We  have  no  standard  definitions  of  the 
citizenship  requirement  as  to  what  con- 
stitutes knowledge  of  English,  of  the 
constitution,  of  loyalty,  or  the  meaning 
of  the  oath  of  allegiance.  Some  judges 
with  a  high  sense  of  patriotic  duty  enforce 
one  standard;  others  "pass  them  up"  — 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS          93 

and  again  America  pays  the  price  in  its 
quality  of  citizenship  and  in  the  kind  of 
service  such  men  and  women  railroaded 
into  citizenship  will  render  when  called 
upon.  We  have  never  considered  a 
knowledge  of  the  country,  of  its  institu- 
tions and  of  Americanism  as  necessary 
for  citizenship,  either  of  native  or  foreign 
born.  We  rest  our  case  upon  a  rather 
splendid  series  of  assumptions.  We  as- 
sume that  the  school  and  home  and  job 
and  town  will  do  this  work  with  never  an 
inquiry  by  the  Federal  government  as  to 
how  the  task  is  being  done.  Were  it  not 
for  the  campaign  for  preparedness  and 
the  dangers  we  face  we  would  still  accept 
the  public  school  Fourth  of  July  oration 
as  sufficient  evidence  of  the  interest  and 
proficiency  of  the  native-born  son;  we 
would  still  believe  that  the  granting  of 
papers  to  foreign-born  men  sealed  their 
loyalty  to  America.  We  hardly  yet 
realize  the  significance  of  the  fact  that 
no  specific  way  of  pledging  allegiance  is 
required  from  the  men  .or  women  who 
come  of  age ;  even  the  child  born  here  of 
foreign  parents  is  not  asked  to  make  a 
choice  between  the  two  possible  alle- 


94  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

giances  that  may  be  dear  to  him.  Little 
citizenship  training  is  given  in  our  schools, 
except  in  the  form  of  diluted  history  or 
civil  government,  and  the  thousands  of 
girls  and  boys  that  leave  school  at  14 
years  of  age  and  go  to  work  do  not  obtain 
even  that.  We  assume  that  the  child 
has  absorbed  American  ideas  and  tradi- 
tions. The  feeble  response  to  a  prepared- 
ness call  and  our  attempts  at  neutrality 
in  thought  have  shown  us  how  little  of 
the  national  and  how  much  of  the  local 
and  selfishly  "safe"  attitude  we  as  a 
nation  have.  What  is  our  conception  of 
citizenship?  Does  it  mean  that  we,  the 
people,  are  the  possessors  of  life,  liberty, 
happiness,  and  prosperity  in  America  with 
no  corresponding  obligations?  Does  it 
mean  that  our  obligations  consist  in  pay- 
ing taxes,  being  law  abiding  to  the  point 
of  keeping  out  of  court,  and  voting  at 
some  elections?  We  owe  these  obliga- 
tions to  any  country  in  which  we  are 
guests.  We  still  find  ourselves,  after 
generations  of  American  citizens,  debat- 
ing whether  we  shall  train  our  young 
men  to  defend  America.  We  find  the 
best  life  in  the  country  not  in  government 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS          95 

service,  building  a  strong  nation,  but  in 
business,  building  an  individual  fortune. 

Are  we  as  careless,  go  as  you  please, 
and  perfunctory  about  making  aliens 
into  citizens  as  we  are  about  native  sons 
and  daughters  growing  into  citizens? 
It  is  not  very  flattering  to  America  to 
find  that  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  war 
in  Europe  the  greatest  incentives  to  the 
acquirement  of  citizenship  by  aliens  were 
political  and  commercial.  There  are 
many  thousands  of  aliens  moved  by  a 
general  aspiration  toward  the  idealistic 
privileges  and  traditions  of  American 
citizenship  and  these  make  our  true 
patriots.  But  by  far  too  many  of  our 
citizens  have  entered  by  way  of  the  po- 
litical club  and  at  the  behest  of  a  self- 
interested  politician ;  and  by  way  of  the 
job,  to  earn  a  living.  How  and  when 
did  citizenship  become  so  cheap  and  be- 
gin to  serve  the  commercial  and  not  the 
patriotic  needs  of  America? 

The  chief  difficulty  arose  with  the 
willingness  of  government  to  place  the 
whole  burden  upon  the  alien.  We  wrote 
a  law  on  the  statute  books,  setting  forth 
certain  technical  requirements ;  then  we 


96  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

taxed  the  prospective  citizen  enough  to 
pay  for  the  enforcement  of  the  law,  pro- 
viding a  number  of  fat  offices  and  a  neat 
balance  in  the  treasury.  Then  we  sat 
back  in  our  comfortable  office  chairs  and 
said  to  the  alien :  Now  you  comply  with 
the  law  and  we  will  grant  you  citizenship 
papers. 

But  in  drafting  the  law,  we  did  another 
thing.  We  called  it  raising  the  standard. 
What  we  really  did  was  to  increase  the 
technicalities  which  cost  influence  and 
money  to  satisfy,  but  which  gave  America 
no  better  citizens.  The  naturalization 
law  provides  that  an  alien  before  becom- 
ing a  citizen  shall  have  a  continuous 
residence  of  five  years  in  America,  shall 
comply  with  certain  rules,  shall  have  a 
knowledge  of  the  English  language  and 
of  the  constitution,  and  shall  renounce 
all  allegiance  to  foreign  governments. 
He  may  not  do  this  all  at  once.  It  is  a 
long,  complicated  process,  intended  to 
safeguard  American  citizenship,  but  fail- 
ing in  its  purpose  because  we  failed  to 
establish  standards  or  facilities  for  com- 
pliance. For  instance,  the  prospective 
citizen  must  file  a  declaration  of  intention 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS          97 

at  least  two  years  prior  to  the  granting 
of  his  final  papers  —  an  obsolete  require- 
ment, as  his  five  years  of  continuous 
residence  is  now  established  by  the  filing 
of  a  certificate  of  arrival  with  his  petition. 
A  second  document,  the  petition  for 
citizenship,  must  be  filed  not  less  than 
two  nor  more  than  seven  years  after  the 
declaration  of  intention,  verified  by  the  af- 
fidavits of  two  credible  citizen  witnesses, 
certifying  to  the  petitioner's  five  years' 
residence  in  the  United  States  and  one 
year's  residence  in  the  state  or  district  in 
which  the  application  is  made.  This 
latter  requirement  creates  almost  insuper- 
able difficulties  for  migratory  laborers 
who  go  from  state  to  state,  following  the 
call  of  casual  or  seasonal  labor.  After 
the  petition  is  filed,  the  applicant  must 
wait  at  least  ninety  days  before  his 
appearance  in  court.  But  should  he 
move  during  this  period  from  one  judicial 
district  to  another  within  the  same  state, 
he  must  file  a  new  petition  and  pay  an 
additional/^,  as  the  court  will  not  transfer 
its  original  records.  As  a  result,  an  ap- 
plicant who  removes  to  New  York  City 
after  filing  a  petition  and  paying  the  fee 


98  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

in  Buffalo  must  go  through  the  same 
process  in  New  York  City.  And  unless 
he  can  afford  to  bring  his  witnesses  twice 
from  Buffalo  to  New  York  City  he  must 
wait  another  year  until  two  other  citizens 
can  verify  his  year's  residence  in  New 
York  City.  The  two  witnesses  must 
accompany  the  petitioner  at  least  twice 
—  when  the  petition  is  filed  and  at  the 
hearing  in  open  court.  If  his  case  is  not 
reached  and  adjournments  are  made,  the 
applicant  frequently  appears  not  only 
the  minimum  four  times,  but  may  appear 
as  many  as  six  or  eight  times,  and  his 
witnesses  as  many  as  four  or  five  times. 
Every  day  in  court  means  the  loss  of 
wages  and  the  cost  of  transportation  to 
and  from  the  county  seat  for  himself 
and  witnesses  whom  he  must  reimburse 
for  their  losses.  The  applicant  and  his 
witnesses  are  in  constant  fear  that  their 
enforced  presence  in  court  during  ordi- 
nary working  hours  may  result  in  the 
loss  of  their  jobs. 

Of  what  possible  value  can  state  and 
district  lines  be  in  a  national  citizenship 
matter?  Are  we  a  nation  or  are  we  a 
conglomeration  of  states  and  districts? 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS          99 

If  we  need  so  cumbersome  a  machine  to 
prevent  frauds,  by  which  the  alien  pays 
the  entire  cost,  then  •  the  reduction  in 
fraud  is  at  the  high  cost  of  citizens.  It  is 
estimated  that  10  per  cent  of  all  aliens 
who  try  to  become  citizens  fail  in  their 
final  examination  because  of  technicali- 
ties, and  most  of  them  never  come  back, 
though  no  fraud  was  alleged. 

When  we  set  this  highly  specialized 
Federal  machinery  in  motion  in  1906, 
it  was  on  the  theory  that  citizenship  was 
a  national,  not  a  state  matter.  In  1889 
when  the  enforcement  of  the  immigration 
laws  was  transferred  to  the  Federal 
government,  it  acquired  all  powers  of 
admission  and  exclusion,  but  all  the  pro- 
tective features  of  the  Board  of  Emigra- 
tion Commissioners  of  New  York  state 
were  dropped  and  a  series  of  exploitations 
immediately  arose.  This  is  precisely 
what  happened  when  our  naturalization 
laws  were  transferred.  We  took  the 
authority,  but  we  neglected  to  establish 
standards,  facilities,  and  protection  for 
the  alien.  We  did  not  settle  the  states'- 
rights  question  and  we  did  not  consider 
sufficiently  our  international  relations. 


100  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

In  the  matter  of  standards,  the  burden 
of  determining  the  qualifications  of  the 
prospective  citizens  rests  upon  the  Bureau 
of  Naturalization,  while  the  actual  grant- 
ing of  final  papers  rests  with  some  2380 
judges,  each  applying  his  own  idea  of 
qualifications.  The  Bureau  of  Naturali- 
zation up  to  1915  has  been  primarily 
"concerned  with  technicalities  of  law  and 
proof  of  residence,  time  elapsing  between 
fKe  granting  of  papers,  etc.  It  has  been 
largely  legal  evidence  which  has  been 
placed  beforejthe  judge,  sEbwing  that  the 
law  had  been  complied  with. 

For  nine  long  years  the  Federal  govern- 
ment enforced  the  letter  of  this  law  — 
it  had  no  American  spirit  in  it.  It  did 
nothing  to  assist  the  alien  to  qualify  in  the 
English  language  or  in  civics.  It  made 
no  attempt  to  stimulate  the  opening  of 
night  schools  where  these  could  be  taught ; 
it  favored  no  educational  extension  work ; 
it  saw  no  connection  between  the  courts, 
schools,  and  naturalization  bureaus. 
Then  things  began  to  happen.  States 
like  New  York  and  California  started 
immigration  bureaus  which  emphasized 
education.  Other  states  like  New  Jersey 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        101 

and  Massachusetts  had  immigration  com- 
missions that  studied  naturalization 
among  other  things.  Two  cities,  at  least, 
took  up  the  matter —  Cleveland  and  Los 
Angeles — of  connecting  the  public  schools 
with  the  courts  and  having  the  certificate 
of  the  school,  giving  credit  for  work  in 
the  English  language  and  civics,  recog- 
nized by  the  judge  in  granting  final 
papers.  In  a  few  cities  night  sessions 
were  also  urged,  so  the  cost  to  workers 
in  time  and  wages  might  be  lessened.  In 
1914  the  Bureau  of  Education  established 
a  division  of  immigrant  education,  which 
began  a  nation-wide  campaign  of  educa- 
tion through  the  public  schools.  In  1915, 
the  preparedness  movement,  and  the 
discussion  of  hyphenated  Americans  and 
their  activities,  awakened  the  Bureau 
of  Naturalization  to  the  fact  that  a  new 
situation  confronted  America. 

In  the  meantime  politics  and  business 
had  been  as  busy  as  ever  "making  citi- 
zens" for  their  own  purposes,  putting 
them  through  the  courts  without  quali- 
fication in  English  or  civics.  Something 
had  to  be  done  about  this,  so  the  Bureau 
of  Naturalization  reversed  its  policy 


102  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

and  is  now  conducting  a  campaign  by 
which  the  name  of  every  applicant  for 
first  papers  is  now  sent  to  the  nearest 
school  authority  and  the  alien  is  followed 
up  and  urged  to  become  qualified  for 
citizenship. 

This  is  still  largely  an  ideal  and  a 
dream  —  something  to  be  worked  out 
with  infinite  care  and  patience  to  bring 
good  results.  We  shall  never  have  pre- 
pared citizens  until  we  have  Federal  aid 
to  local  communities.  Outside  of  the 
large  cities  the  local  school  can  barely 
meet  its  local  obligations  to  children, 
and  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  there 
are  adequate  facilities  for  night  schools. 
This  is  by  no  means  all  of  the  problem 
of  standards.  I  am  convinced  that  we 
shall  have  to  have  a  Federal  admission 
law  compelling  the  acquirement  of  the 
English  language  or  similar  compulsory 
state  laws  to  get  immigrants  into  the 
school.  Let  us  tell  the  truth.  We  have 
empty  night  schools  in  America  as  well  as 
aliens  without  school  facilities.  Why? 
The  foreign  governments  and  the  bulk 
of  the  foreign-language  newspapers  are 
against  the  immigrant  learning  the  Eng- 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        103 

lish  language.  It  opens  the  door  too 
rapidly  to  Americanization.  The  short- 
sighted  business^manjs  againstlxis-work- 
meiTHecQmin^Jiteratej  learning  English 
anoTtoo  much^abput  America.  He  thinks 
they  will  move  up  and  want  higher  wages. 
The  trade  union  is  against  it,  as  it  also 
thinks  they  will  move  up  and  displace 
union  men.  No  school  can  succeed 
where  the  employer  discourages  attend- 
ance, works  his  men  nights  or  overtime, 
interfering  with  attendance,  or  in  alter- 
nate weekly  shifts,  destroying  continuity 
of  attendance.  The  cooperation  of  busi- 
ness and  the  adjustment  of  the  school 
system  for  adults  to  the  industrial  system 
are  vital  to  success.  No  school  can  fully 
succeed  that  does  not  have  the  support 
and  understanding  of  the  local  political 
and  religious  leaders,  as  they  may  make 
for  or  against  attendance.  A  national 
governmental  plan  of  preparation  for 
citizenship  depends  in  its  last  analysis 
upon  local  activity,  sympathy,  and  under- 
standing, and  upon  adequate  funds.  Why 
did  Detroit  double  its  appropriation  for 
night  schools  in  1915  and  increase  its 
attendance  156  per  cent?  Because 


104  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

organized  business,  wide  awake  and  far 
seeing,  saw  that  the  stable  working  popu- 
lation in  the  future  in  America  will  be 
men  with  a  citizenship  and  a  home  stake 
in  America.  They  set  out  to  provide  it, 
and  the  latest  step  taken  is  that  of  the 
Packard  Motor  Car  Company,  basing 
advancement  upon  citizenship. 

Citizenship  preparation  cannot  be  a 
paper  propaganda  —  it  must  bear  a  vital 
relation  to  the  work,  play,  and  living 
conditions  of  each  citizen  and  take  him 
not  only  to  the  school  but  to  the  military 
training  camp;  not  only  to  the  job  but 
to  the  polls ;  not  only  to  better  conditions 
^jn^America  but* to  unswerving  loyalty  to 
America!' 

""""So  much  for  standards.  What  have 
we  done  about  states'  rights?  In  the 
chapter  on  the  American  Vote,  I  have 
dealt  with  the  confusion  between  our 
state  and  Federal  voting  laws.  We  have 
a  more  serious  problem  in  the  economic 
imprint  we  have  permitted  states  and 
cities  to  put  upon  citizenship.  As  a 
result  of  these  laws  citizenship  has  be- 
come in  many  states  a  kind  of  economic 
patchwork.  In  order  to  preserve  certain 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        105 

rights,  advantages,  and  fields  of  effort  to 
native-born  and  naturalized  citizens,  we 
have  made  certain  discriminations  against 
aliens  which  have  resulted  in  a  purely 
commercial  incentive  to  citizenship  or 
evasions  of  law. 

As  illustrative  of  America's  attitude  in 
these  matters,  let  us  take  public  service. 
Aliens  are  shut  out  from  public  service 
by  several  laws  and  many  municipal 
ordinances.  The  state  laws  are  some- 
times very  sweeping,  excluding  the  alien 
from  employment  in  any  capacity  in  any 
department  of  the  state.  In  California, 
for  instance,  only  citizens  may  be  em- 
ployed in  any  department  of  the  state, 
county,  city,  or  town.  This  law  was 
invoked  last  winter  to  prevent  the  pay- 
ment of  salaries  of  several  Canadians 
who  had  been  employed  as  teachers  in 
the  public  schools.  This  law  was  later 
amended,  allowing  aliens  who  had  made 
their  declaration  of  intention  to  be  em- 
ployed as  teachers  and  exempting  the 
University  of  California  from  the  opera- 
tion of  the  act. 

State  civil  service  laws  prescribe  citi- 
zenship as  a  qualification  hi  California, 


106  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

Colorado,  Connecticut,  Illinois,  Massachu- 
setts, New  Jersey,  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Ohio.  The  Federal  civil 
service  law  has  a  similar  requirement. 
In  most  states  these  laws  apply  to  un- 
skilled labor  on  public  improvements, 
road  building  and  ditch  digging,  even 
where  sublet  by  the  city  to  a  contractor. 
The  result  is  a  wholesale  evasion  of 
the  law,  made  necessary  in  order  for  the 
city  to  get  its  work  done.  The  alien 
knows  he  is  a  law  breaker  and  gets  his 
first  lesson  in  American  law  enforcement. 
He  works  in  peace  and  security  while 
some  one  else  pays  the  necessary  fines. 
If  the  worst  happens,  he  applies  for  his 
first  papers  and  then  works  under  an 
injunction  until  the  law  can  be  interpreted 
or  amended  —  which  is  done  if  labor  is 
very  scarce. 

It  is  a  sound  policy  necessary  for  the 
protection  of  the  country  to  require  that 
only  citizens  shall  administer  its  govern- 
ment and  hold  positions  of  trust  and 
respoifsiBflity^ As  a  measure  of  defense, 
which  is  its  main  justification,  it  should 
be  national.  It  is  no  defense  against  a 
"Tofeigh  foe  to  have  it  obtain  in  one  state 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        107 

and  not  in  another ;  in  one  city  and  not 
in  another.  A  state  or  city  that  needs 
protection  from  a  neighboring  state  or 
city  has  not  yet  attained  a  national  point 
of  view  and  stands  in  the  way  of  American- 
ism and  nationalism.  It  is  sound  to  keep 
alien  workmen  off  our  waterways  and 
water-supply  systems  and  other  public 
works  of  importance  in  defense,  but  we 
defeat  our  entire  purpose  of  safety  when 
any  alien  resident  here  for  a  few  months 
can  go  on  those  arteries  of  our  defense 
system  with  a  declaration  of  intention 
in  his  pocket. 

It  is  a  sound  policy  that  l^e  instruction 
in  our  public  schools  jhpuld,.ke.  by  Ameri- 
can  citizen^  wIFh  an  ^^ricaiijgoint  of 
view^^djoyaity,  but  compliance  with 
thaFTaw,  as  in  California,  by  granting 
first  papers/  will  not  carry  out  that  policy 
or  give  assurance  of  teaching  from  the 
American  point  of  view.  Americans  re- 
gard the  possession  of  a  paper  as  evi- 
dence of  intent  and  of  qualifications, 
whereas  it  is  generally  regarded  by  the 
alien  as  a  technical  requirement  necessary 
to  earn  money  in  America. 

In  some  states  there  is  a  modified  form 


108  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

of  this  law,  requiring  that  preference  be 
given  to  citizens.  At  this  stage  it  be- 
comes clear  that  these  laws  are  not  na- 
tional defense  laws,  but  labor  preference 
laws.  If  Americanism  means  anything 
in  justice,  law,  order,  or  opportunity, 
such  laws  should  have  their  purpose  ex- 
pressed and  their  terms  defined  in  the 
Federal  statutes  and  due  notice  should 
be  given  the  alien  before  he  emigrates 
to  America.  Are  we  a  nation  dealing 
squarely  with  all  peoples  and  honorably 
with  those  we  admit,  or  are  we  a  federa- 
tion of  states  each  dealing  with  the 
alien  as  it  sees  fit,  after  the  nation  has 
admitted  him  ?  All  right-thinking  Ameri- 
cans must  see  that  we  must  deal  as  a 
nation  and  not  locally  with  the  subjects 
of  alienism  and  citizenship. 

Local  temporizing  with  national  honor 
and  fair  play  has  led  us  into  even  more 
unjust  discriminations,  indefensible  in  the 
light  of  our  treaty  obligations.  Aliens  are 
in  some  states  excluded  from  pursuing 
certain  private  callings.  In  many  states 
an  alien  may  not  be  an  attorney;  in 
other  states  that  profession  is  open  to 
declarants,  showing  again  our  utter  lack 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        109 

of  comprehension  of  such  laws  as  defense 
measures.  For  example,  in  Louisiana, 
an  alien  cannot  get  a  contract  for  public 
printing;  in  Michigan  he  cannot  get  a 
barber's  license;  in  many  states,  such 
as  New  Jersey,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania, 
Vermont,  etc.,  only  a  citizen  can  get  a 
liquor  license.  In  six  states  the  alien  is 
excluded  from  gaining  a  livelihood  by 
hunting  and  fishing;  in  Tennessee  he 
may  not  be  a  market  hunter,  and  in 
Wyoming  he  may  not  be  a  guide.  In 
Virginia  only  a  citizen  may  get  a  junk- 
dealer's  license,  and  in  Georgia  only  a 
citizen  or  a  declarant  can  get  a  peddler's 
license.  In  New  Jersey  an  alien  cannot 
get  a  license  to  transmit  money  to  foreign 
countries,  or  receive  money  on  deposit  for 
transmission  to  foreign  countries,  or  buy 
and  sell  foreign  money. 

What  is  the  situation  in  relation  to 
property  ?  The  United  States  consists  of 
a  federation  of  states,  each  sovereign  in  its 
own  domain  except  for  the  powers  dele- 
gated to  the  Federal  government.  The 
tenure  of  real  property  is  not  one  of  the 
powers  so  delegated.  Each  state  conse- 
quently has  sovereign  power  over  its  own 


110  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

soil,  and  can  determine  by  whom  it  will 
permit  its  soil  to  be  held  and  what  condi- 
tions it  will  attach  to  the  tenure.  For 
this  reason  the  state  enactments  regarding 
real  property  are  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance. In  twenty-nine  states  resident 
aliens  are  given  the  same  property  rights 
as  citizens ;  in  two  other  states  the  same 
rights  are  given  to  white  aliens. 

In  other  states,  however,  aliens  are 
practically  prohibited  from  holding  land 
at  all  or  may  hold  it  only  for  a  limited 
period.  In  still  others,  no  alien  can 
acquire  land,  except  by  inheritance  or  in 
payment  of  debt.  The  laws  vary  greatly 
in  the  various  states.  Non-resident  alien 
heirs  are  placed  in  a  difficult  position. 
In  several  states  they  are  allowed  to  take 
only  with  the  limitation  that  they  sell 
within  a  certain  time.  If  land  in  Cali- 
fornia falls  to  an  alien  not  capable  of  tak- 
ing title  to  it,  it  is  sold  for  his  benefit ;  in 
Illinois  non-resident  heirs  are  excluded 
altogether. 

The  restriction  of  landholding  to  cit- 
izens is  a  fundamentally  sound  measure 
of  national  defense.  It  is /not  sound 
unless  it  is  uniform  in  all  states,  and 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        111 

in  view  of  our  growing  international 
importance  and  impossibility  of  isolation 
from  the  world,  there  should  be  a 
national  policy  in  this  regard  wholly  gov- 
erned by  international  agreement  and 
national  law.  The  holding  of  land  also 
bears  a  vital  relation  to  our  various 
schemes  for  colonizing  aliens,  opening  of 
reservations,  and  issuing  of  rural  credits, 
and  should  be  considered  in  these  con- 
nections. 

Some  of  the  recent  so-called  insurance 
laws  show  the  same  tendencies  to  dis- 
criminations. The  workmen's  compensa- 
tion laws  now  in  force  in  the  United 
States  affect  the  alien  in  several  ways. 
The  most  evident  is  the  discrimination 
against  alien  beneficiaries  that  limit  the 
amount  that  may  be  paid  to  non-resident 
dependents.  Connecticut  gives  such  a 
dependent  only  half  of  what  a  resident 
would  receive,  and  Kansas  names  $750 
as  the  maximum  a  non-resident  may 
receive,  although  a  resident  may  receive 
a  sum  varying  from  $1200  to  $3600.  In 
some  states  installments  are  commuted  to 
a  lump  sum  if  paid  to  a  non-resident,  and 
in  Nebraska  this  may  amount  to  only 


112  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

two  thirds  of  the  sum  total  of  the  install- 
ments ;  in  New  York  it  may  amount  to 
only  one  half,  while  lump-sum  payments 
by  the  railroads  engaged  in  interstate 
commerce  may  amount  only  to  one  year's 
wages. 

Another  form  of  discrimination  is 
found  in  the  determination  of  who  are 
"dependents."  Three  states  in  the  case 
of  non-resident  aliens  limit  to  the  closest 
relationships  those  who  may  be  considered 
dependents.  Three  others  present  the 
extreme  situation  of  refusing  to  recognize 
non-resident  alien  dependents  at  all.  If 
an  immigrant  workman  is  killed  in  any 
one  of  these  states,  even  his  closest  rela- 
tives in  Austria  or  Italy  have  no  standing 
under  this  law. 

Aliens  are  excluded  in  Illinois  and  New 
York  from  the  benefits  of  the  mothers' 
pension  laws ;  and  there  is  a  tendency  to 
make  citizenship  a  requirement  in  plans 
proposed  or  put  into  operation  for  the 
welfare  of  the  unemployed.  In  the  law 
passed  in  Idaho  last  year,  requiring  the 
county  commissioners  to  provide  work 
on  the  public  highways  or  elsewhere  for 
unemployed  men,  only  citizens  of  the 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        113 

United  States  were  entitled  to  apply  for 
work.  In  other  words  if  two  men  con- 
tribute equally  to  producing  wealth  for 
the  state,  the  citizen  may  work  and  receive 
state  funds  to  keep  him  from  starving, 
while  the  alien  must  get  out  or  starve. 
The  state  is  done  with  him,  when  it  has 
no  work  for  him  to  do. 

In  other  states  an  alien  cannot  be  an 
executor,  administrator,  or  guardian,  a 
provision  which  often  hampers  the  settle- 
ment of  the  estate  of  an  alien  whose  close 
friends  and  relatives  are  often  aliens. 
There  are  other  examples  of  discrimina- 
tion in  the  enjoyment  of  personal  rights 
and  privileges.  In  Pennsylvania  and 
New  Jersey  an  alien  is  not  allowed  to  have 
a  rifle  or  shotgun  in  his  possession  — 
nominally  in  order  that  game  may  be 
protected.  A  law  that  went  into  effect 
this  summer  in  Pennsylvania  goes  even 
further ;  it  prohibits  an  alien  from  owning 
or  having  in  his  possession  any  kind  of 
dog.  The  constitutionality  of  this  law  is 
soon  to  be  tested. 

One  cannot  read  the  hundreds  of  dis- 


criminating laws  without  a  sense  c>f~the 
utter  prostitution  of  Afnericanicitizenship 


114  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 


to  prej^ij^j^oJh^ 
ancTto  the  selfishness  jrfjrroups  and  indi- 
viduals. ^Men  in  power  set  themselves 
above  the  nation  and  seek  to  make  that 
power  secure  by  controlling  at  will  the 
means  of  subsistence  of  other  men.  By 
all  means  let  us  have  a  complete  national 
defense  in  which  the  lives,  land,  and  jobs 
of  citizens  shall  be  secured,  but  let  us  have 
it  by  statesmanship  and  national  law 
and  international  agreement,  so  we  may 
fight  in  the  open  for  what  we  believe  in 
and  not  support  indefensible  citizenship 
legislation  lobbied  through  the  legislatures 
by  class  interests. 

And  now  we  face  a  new  situation  which 
bids  fair  to  upset  all  our  citizenship  plans. 
Some  industries  are  taking  the  stand  that 
they  will  only  promote  men  who  are 
citizens  or  who  have  applied  for  their 
first  papers.  In  this  attitude  employers 
are  moved  by  two  considerations  — 
patriotism  and  the  need  for  national  pre- 
paredness and  a  realization  of  their 
responsibility;  and  second,  the  need  for 
an  improved  and  more  stable  labor  supply 
and  a  reduction  in  accidents  among 
English-speaking  men.  The  Packard 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        115 

Motor    Car    Company    in    making    its 
announcement  said : 

"  We  have  in  our  organization  almost  100 
different  peoples.  We  have  Germans, 
Italians,  Austrians,  French,  Polish  —  whose 
sympathies  are  divided  as  regards  the  war 
at  present  raging  in  Europe.  We  have  a 
babel  of  tongues  and  an  endless  variety  of 
races  and  nationalities. 

"Our  workmen  are  divided  into  cliques 
thereby.  Their  sympathies  are  with  the 
lands  that  gave  them  birth.  They  forget 
our  national  ideals.  To  my  mind  this  is  a 
source  of  danger  not  only  to  the  company, 
but  to  the  whole  country.  The  conditions 
of  the  average  American  factory  are  the 
conditions  of  this  country.  We  have  no 
unified  people,  as  in  France,  in  Germany, 
or  in  other  countries. 

"  In  the  American  factory  this  sympathy 
and  patriotism  of  each  set  of  foreign-born 
workmen  for  their  native  land  causes  fric- 
tion among  the  men.  We  find  that  in  many 
instances  men  of  one  nationality  object  to 
working  under  a  foreman  or  higher  official 
of  another  nationality.  We  have  had  let- 
ters from  the  men  along  that  line  objecting 
to  employment  under  a  boss  who  is  undesir- 
able because  of  a  different  nationality. 


116  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

"So  we  are  going  to  make  the  'bosses' 
in  this  factory  Americans.  Be  they  of 
whatever  nationality  when  they  come  in  as 
laborers,  they  must  be  American  citizens, 
loyal  to  America  and  American  ideals  and 
all  they  stand  for,  before  they  can  hope  for 
positions  of  responsibility  and  trust.  We 
determined  to  make  the  prerequisite  of 
success  in  this  institution  American  pa- 
triotism and  American  nationalism. 

"  We  will  employ  foreign-born  men,  but 
it  shall  be  understood  that  their  only  hope 
for  advancement  and  preferment  lies  in  their 
speedy  adoption  of  American  citizenship 
and  the  forswearing  of  allegiance  to  other 
lands.  And  we  feel  that  if  throughout  this 
nation  commercial  and  industrial  success 
depended  on  a  prerequisite  of  American 
loyalty  and  patriotism,  the  country  would 
be  better  off,  its  factories  would  have  far 
more  efficiency  and  the  workmen  would  be 
better  satisfied  and  happier,  with  old- 
country  feuds  and  bickerings  forgotten  and 
superseded  by  a  thorough  Americanism." 

As  an  educational  measure  supplying 
the  stimulus  to  citizenship  work  this  is 
valuable.  Should  it  be  adopted,  how- 
ever, as  a  widespread  industrial  policy  it 
will  lead  to  two  complications  —  inter- 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        117 

national,  as  being  unduly  discriminating, 
and  hardships  to  the  alien,  due  to  lack  of 
advance  knowledge  and  opportunity  to 
adjust  himself.  It  may  further  cheapen 
citizenship  by  putting  it  on  a  commercial 
basis.  The  way  out  is  to  notify  each 
alien  before  admission  that  every  alien 
over  school  age  and  under  45  will  be 
required  to  learn  English  within  five 
years,  subject  to  deportation  for  non- 
compliance,  if  facilities  are  furnished 
him.  We  shall  then  see  every  industry 
interested  in  keeping  a  good  labor  supply, 
making  every  effort  to  comply  with  the 
law,  and  we  will  have  a  national  policy 
based  on  law  instead  of  isolated  action  by 
miscellaneous  industries,  never  uniform 
and  varying  widely  in  purpose  and 
methods. 

We  have  heard  much  about  "dual 
citizenship"  since  the  European  war 
began.  This  is  not  a  new  question. 
Over  and  over  again  it  has  come  up  for 
adjudication  before  the  Department  of 
State.  There  are  two  important  aspects 
of  the  subject.  The  first  concerns  the 
question  of  the  citizenship  of  children 
born  in  the  United  States  of  foreign-born 


118  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

parents;   the  second  concerns  the  status 
of  naturalized  American  citizens. 

In  the  first  case  the  difficulty  arises 
from  what  appears  to  be  an  inevitable 
conflict  of  laws.  There  are  two  theories 
for  determining  the  nationality,  or  rather 
the  citizenship,  of  any  given  individual. 
The  first  of  these  laws  is  what  is  called  the 
jus  soli,  or  the  law  of  the  land.  Accord- 
ing to  this  a  person  takes  the  nationality 
of  the  land  in  which  he  is  born.  This  is 
the  American  conception  running  through 
our  general  theory  of  citizenship. 

The  other  is  called  jus  sanguinis,  or  the 
law  of  blood.  This  is  the  law  that  is 
followed  in  ordinary  European  civil  law 
codes.  According  to  this  law,  a  person's 
nationality  or  citizenship  depends  on  the 
citizenship  of  his  parents.  The  United 
States  has  adopted  this  rule  in  the  case  of 
children  born  abroad  of  parents  that  are 
American  citizens.  Each  law  has  its 
advantages.  It  is  certainly  better  to 
consider  that  the  child  of  an  American 
business  man  residing  in  China  at  the 
time  the  child  is  born  is  an  American 
citizen  than  it  would  be  to  consider  that 
the  child  was  a  subject  of  the  Chinese 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        119 

Empire.  This  law  of  blood,  like  many 
other  rules  of  the  civil  law,  goes  back  to 
such  a  fundamental  human  instinct  that 
any  other  way  of  dealing  with  this  situa- 
tion than  the  one  it  suggests  would  seem 
wrong  to  us.  The  law  of  the  land,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  very  distinct  advantages 
as  well,  which  can  also  be  illustrated 
from  our  American  situation.  A  Russian 
man  and  woman,  let  us  say,  succeed  in 
escaping  persecution  at  home  and  come 
to  this  country  to  live.  We  prefer  to 
think  that  their  children,  born  on  Ameri- 
can soil  and  brought  up  under  American 
institutions,  are  Americans,  and  we  have 
made  this  the  cardinal  principle  of  Amer- 
ican citizenship.  It  would  be  too  late 
now  to  attempt  to  alter  this  law,  even  if 
we  wished  to  do  so,  because  it  is  firmly 
rooted  both  in  statute  law  and  in  our 
fundamental  conception  of  the  meaning 
of  America. 

And  yet  we  find  it  convenient  and  right 
to  use  the  opposed  law  of  nationality,  the 
law  of  blood,  in  such  a  case  as  a  child 
born  in  China  of  American  parents. 
If  we  find  it  necessary  to  adopt  into  our 
own  statutes  a  provision  so  contrary  to 


120  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

our  general  citizenship  law  as  this  law 
of  blood,  we  cannot  consistently  object 
when  another  country  adopts  it  as  its 
principle  of  citizenship.  The  difficulty 
has  been  met  hitherto  by  allowing  the 
child  to  choose  which  nationality  it  wishes 
to  keep  when  it  becomes  twenty-one,  or 
attains  its  majority,  and  by  holding  it 
subject  until  that  time  to  the  law  of 
whichever  country  it  happens  to  be  in. 
This  at  least  is  the  way  the  situation  works 
out,  although  there  has  never  been  any 
international  ruling  on  the  subject.  If 
the  child  were  in  France,  the  French 
authorities  applied  the  French  law ;  if  it 
were  in  America,  the  American  authorities 
applied  the  American  law,  and  when  the 
child  -became  of  age,  it  made  its  election, 
and  thereafter  was  held  to  be  a  citizen 
of  whichever  country  it  elected.  It  was 
considered  to  be  so  clear  a  fact  that  this 
election  was  something  that  the  child 
alone  could  do,  that  the  fact  that  the 
father  took  the  child  from  one  country  to 
another  was  held  over  and  over  again 
not  to  affect  the  child's  right  to  chose  for 
itself  when  it  became  of  age.  Theoreti- 
cally we  hold  that  there  can  be  no  dual 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        121 

citizenship  of  the  naturalized  citizen  or 
of  the  child  born  in  America  if  he  elects 
American  citizenship.  The  records  are 
not  altogether  clear  if  we  stand  ready  to 
enforce  this.  There  are  two  recent  cases 
on  this  point.  In  June,  1915,  a  young 
man  named  Ugo  da  Prato,  who  was  born 
in  Boston  in  1895  and  had  gone  to  Italy 
in  1912  to  study  architecture,  was  held 
by  the  Italian  government  as  liable  to 
military  duty  because  his  father,  Antonio 
da  Prato,  had  been  a  native  of  Italy.  He 
had  emigrated  to  America  and  had  been 
naturalized  in  Boston  in  1892.  Under  our 
American  law,  the  son  Ugo,  born  on 
American  soil,  was  an  American.  The 
Italian  law,  however,  holds  that  Italian 
subjects  who  have  acquired  citizenship  in 
other  countries  are  not  exempted  from 
the  obligations  of  military  service,  nor 
from  the  penalties  imposed  on  those  who 
bear  arms  against  their  country.  Italy 
subsequently  released  Ugo  da  Prato. 

A  similar  situation  arose  in  the  case  of 
one  de  Long,  of  Louisiana,  who  was  born 
in  America  of  a  French  father  who  had 
never  been  naturalized.  Upon  his  in- 
quiry to  the  State  Department  as  to  what 


STRAIGHT  AMERICA 


his  status  would  be  in  France  if  he  were 
to  return  there  during  the  war,  the  State 
Department  advised  him  that  while  he 
was  by  the  law  of  America  an  American 
citizen,  by  the  law  of  France  he  was  a 
French  citizen,  and  they  declined  to  en- 
courage him  to  test  the  matter  by  re- 
turning to  France  while  the  war  was  in 
progress. 

The  real  question  at  issue,  of  course,  is 
whether  or  not  a  nation  has  the  right  to 
regard  its  control  over  its  subject  as  a 
thing  of  which  it  can  refuse  to  divest  itself. 
The  Ottoman  law  is  that  no  transfer  of 
allegiance  to  which  the  consent  of  the 
Ottoman  government  has  not  been  pre- 
viously obtained  is  binding.  The  French 
law  is  similar;  the  French  government 
rarely  consents  to  permit  a  Frenchman  of 
military  age  to  throw  off  his  allegiance. 
Under  certain  conditions,  however,  per- 
mission may  be  obtained.  The  Greek 
government  generally  refuses  to  recognize 
a  change  of  nationality  made  without 
consent.  Neither  does  the  Persian  gov- 
ernment, nor  the  Russian  government. 
Under  Russian  law,  a  Russian  subject 
who  becomes  a  citizen  of  another  country 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        123 

without  the  consent  of  the  Russian  govern- 
ment is  deemed  to  have  committed  an 
offense  for  which  he  is  liable  to  arrest 
and  punishment  if  he  returns  without 
having  previously  obtained  permission 
of  the  Russian  government. 

This  second  form  of  dual  allegiance, 
which  would  more  properly  be  stated  as 
the  attempt  to  hold  that  the  change  of 
allegiance  either  did  not  take  place  at  all 
or  else  was  not  thoroughgoing,  bears  in 
itself  the  possibility  of  very  serious  com- 
plications. Our  naturalized  citizens  and 
the  native-born  children  of  foreign-born 
parents  have  a  right  to  determine  that  the 
allegiance  they  have  chosen  to  swear  to 
the  United  States  be  protected. 

The  situation  at  present  amounts  to 
this:  The  United  States  has  treaties  of 
naturalization  with  Austria-Hungary, 
Belgium,  Denmark,  the  German  States, 
Great  Britain,  Haiti,  Norway  and  Sweden, 
and  Portugal.  These  treaties  provide 
under  what  conditions  naturalization  does 
not  free  a  former  subject  from  obliga- 
tion to  the  country  of  his  birth.  Theo- 
retically, whenever  a  question  involving 
some  aspect  of  naturalization  comes  up 


124  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

with  reference  to  a  former  subject  of  one 
of  these  countries,  his  rights  and  obliga- 
tions are  determined  by  the  treaty.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  however,  this  is  not 
always  the  case,  for  while  there  is  a  treaty 
of  naturalization  with  Germany,  that  did 
not  prevent  the  Germans  from  passing 
the  law  of  nationality  of  June  1,  1914, 
which  practically  nullifies  the  treaty. 
Where  there  is  no  treaty  of  naturalization 
all  that  the  state  authorities  can  do  is  to 
call  the  attention  of  the  foreign  govern- 
ment to  the  American  point  of  view.  It 
has  never,  apparently,  been  considered 
possible  to  enforce  the  American  concep- 
tion of  naturalization,  or  to  make  Ameri- 
can citizenship  really  respected  in  coun- 
tries that  are  slow  to  do  so.  When  the 
point  was  brought  to  an  issue  with  Russia, 
the  only  effect  was  to  leave  us  without  any 
treaty  with  Russia  at  all. 

As  long  as  we  are  content  to  treat 
naturalization  as  an  isolated  matter  we 
will  get  no  satisfaction.  We  shall  never 
be  in  a  better  position  than  at  the  close 
of  the  war  to  insist  upon  a  thorough 
understanding  of  matters  and  adoption  of 
a  uniform  practice  in  international  citi- 


AMERICA-MADE  CITIZENS        125 

zenship.  We  now  have  citizenship  mat- 
ters to  settle  nationally  and  internation- 
ally for  which  we  are  ill  prepared. 

Congress  is  charged  by  the  Constitution 
with  "establishing  a  uniform  rule  of 
naturalization. ' J  It  has  never  been  estab- 
lished. It  is  the  immediate  duty  of  Con- 
gress to  do  so.  We  need  a  thorough 
overhauling  of  our  Federal  naturalization 
laws,  and  of  local  laws  in  regard  to  vot- 
ing, holding  land  and  property,  earning 
a  living,  etc.,  from  the  standpoint  of 
national  development  and  defense^  and 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  future  of  our 
Americanism.  We  cannot  do  this  with- 
out a  thorough,  impartial  scientific  study 
of  the  effect  of  the  enforcement  of  these 
laws  —  not  only  as  shown  in  official 
statistics  and  records  in  Washington, 
but  in  the  local  districts  and  among  those 
naturalized.  We  need  to  know  more  of 
the  cost  and  effectiveness  of  our  naturali- 
zation process  and  the  kind  of  citizens  it 
gives  us.  We  need  to  know  about  the 
granting  of  papers  through  the  various 
courts  and  the  Influences  at  work  for 
making  good  or  bad  citizens  throughout 
the  country.  We  need  to  know  what  our 


126  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

facilities  are  for  educating  aliens  to  be- 
come citizens,  and  more  of  the  attitude 
of  our  newly  naturalized  citizens  toward 
America.  Having  these  matters  in  hand, 
we  may  then  proceed  to  work  out  a  citi- 
zenship policy  and  practice  which  will 
accord  with  the  times  in  which  we  live 
and  will  be  a  national  and  international 
code  which  will  make  all  native-born 
citizens  doubly  proud  of  their  heritage 
and  all  foreign-born  citizens  proud  to 
live  or  die  for  America,  as  the  call  may 
come. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  POPULAR  VOTE 

WE  are  facing  a  national  election  in  which 
the  "vote  of  the  people"  will  decide  the 
future  of  America  more  certainly  than  at 
any  election  since  the  Civil  War.  One  of 
the  most  vital  questions  before  us  this 
year  is :  Will  the  foreign-born  vote  tend 
to  solidarity  and  be  cast  in  racial  interests, 
or  will  it  be  cast  for  America  along  broad 
lines  of  national  policy?  Will  the  1500 
foreign-language  newspapers  influence  the 
foreign-born  vote  in  favor  of  a  national 
policy  or  will  it  attempt  to  influence  it 
along  racial  lines  ? 

The  returns  of  the  next  national  elec- 
tion should  have  an  important  bearing 
upon  our  future  immigration  policy  of  ad- 
mission. Should  we  find  the  vote  tend- 
ing to  solidify  along  racial  lines  then  we 
have  an  additional  reason  for  insisting 
upon  the  development  of  an  assimilation 

127 


128  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

policy  if  we  are  to  continue  to  admit 
aliens.  The  racial  vote  may  prove  to  be 
a  far  more  anti-American  influence  than 
the  foreign  colony.  America  cannot 
afford  to  have  an  Irish  vote,  a  German- 
American  vote,  a  Jewish  vote,  cast  en 
bloc  for  any  measures  or  man,  if  Ameri- 
canism as  defined  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  Federal  Constitution 
is  to  prevail. 

The  issues  promise  to  center  more 
about  candidates  than  platforms.  Parties 
will  impress  us  more  as  election  machinery 
than  as  vehicles  of  any  really  fundamental 
ideals  and  program.  We  shall  probably 
have  three  measures  of  preparedness 
from  which  to  choose.  There  will  be  a 
sincere,  genuine  program  of  preparedness, 
including  international  duty,  American- 
ism, and  preparation  at  home  carried  by 
the  Republicans,  to  fit  its  candidate,  and 
probably  indorsed  by  the  Progressives. 
There  will  be  a  milder  course,  a  kind  of 
middle-of-the-road  preparedness  carried 
by  the  Democrats,  in  the  hope  of  holding 
their  own.  The  indications  are  now 
that  there  will  be  a  third  party  of  pacifists, 
anti-preparedness  at  most  points,  which 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE      129 

will  include  the  ultra-contented,  the  dis- 
contented, and  a  considerable  socialist 
and  labor  following.  Each  platform  will 
doubtless  carry  some  planks  dealing  with 
"pressing  national  questions"  as  ballast, 
but  few  voters  will  consider  them  seri- 
ously. The  main  issue  of  preparedness 
will  determine  the  lines  of  the  vote,  be- 
cause America  now  knows  that  all  of  its 
internal  progress  and  "reform"  depend 
upon  an  America  that  can  defend  itself. 
Belgium  drove  that  lesson  home. 
Through  the  intricate  paths  of  American 
honor,  international  duty,  adequate  pre- 
paredness, national  service,  universal 
training,  Mexican  strategy,  the  American 
voter  must  wend  his  way.  He  will  be 
beset  at  every  turn  by  the  "record  of  the 
administration  and  of  Congress,"  inter- 
preted first  one  way  and  then  another  by 
the  propaganda  of  defense  organizations 
and  of  their  opponents.  He  will  be 
deluged  with  accurate  and  inaccurate  in- 
formation, from  which  he  will  find  it  diffi- 
cult to  select  the  best.  He  will  be  bom- 
barded with  literature,  and  enticed  to 
meetings  and  will  be  given  promises  hard 
to  keep  in  1917.  Within  the  next  few 


130  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

months  he  will  receive  more  gratuitous 
condensed  education  on  all  these  ques- 
tions than  during  the  entire  time  since 
1912. 

In  addition  to  all  this  confusion  of 
mind  and  competitive  struggle,  prevailing 
about  the  native-born  voter,  the  foreign- 
born  voter  will  be  torn  by  loyalties  and 
sympathies  which  go  back  many  genera- 
tions to  the  fatherland.  Most  of  them 
have  some  one  dear  to  them  at  the  front 
or  lying  dead  on  some  battle  field.  Their 
mail  is  censored  and  they  often  do  not 
know  who  is  dead  and  who  is  living  or 
what  has  happened  to  their  little  home- 
stead in  the  old  country.  They  see  am- 
munition going  out  of  America,  not  to 
fight  their  battles,  but  to  kill  some  of  their 
countrymen.  They  see  America  growing 
rich  from  this  manufacture.  They  are 
only  waiting  the  first  assurance  of  peace 
to  go  back  and  see  what  has  happened  or 
to  help  their  home  country. 

It  is  inevitable  that  some  expression  of 
this  should  find  voice  at  the  polls,  and  the 
question  is  how  to  make  the  American 
issues  so  fine  and  big  and  strong  and  world 
compelling  that  they  will  engulf  this  great 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE      131 

human  sorrow  and  devotion  and  make  it 
of  service  to  America.  How  can  we  in 
this  next  election  make  every  voter  feel 
that  America  is  for  him  —  to  serve,  to 
guard,  to  use,  so  we  may  stem  the  great 
tide  of  discontent,  aversion,  and  desertion 
which  has  set  in  among  our  foreign-born 
voters?  How  can  we  in  this  coming 
election  remove  the  indifference,  irrespon- 
sibility, and  profit  seeking  which  charac- 
terizes our  native-born  voter? 

Now  that  we  face  the  crisis  and  know 
the  necessity,  we  look  with  amazement 
and  alarm  at  what  our  preparation  has 
been.  We  turn  to  our  schools  and  ask 
them  what  they  have  been  doing  in  the 
way  of  preparing  the  voter  —  what  has 
he  been  taught  about  America  and  its 
government,  institutions,  and  opportuni- 
ties? How  have  these  been  related  to 
his  own  local  civic  life?  What  sense  of 
national  service  has  he  acquired  in  his 
town  school?  Alas  —  we  find  there  is 
nothing  held  so  cheap  as  the  American 
vote,  and  the  last  form  of  preparedness 
is  that  for  voting.  Of  the  American  boy 
we  require  that  he  shall  be  born  here, 
and  shall  be  21  years  of  age.  We  assume 


132  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

that  somehow  the  public  school,  which  he 
is  required  to  attend  in  some  states  only, 
will  teach  him  the  value  of  the  vote  and 
how  to  use  it,  and  something  of  his  duties 
and  obligations  to  his  country.  We  also 
assume  that  the  boy's  parents  will  edu- 
cate him  along  these  lines.  To  the  girl 
in  most  states  we  deny  the  vote  for  ap- 
parently no  reasons  other  than  precedent, 
prejudice,  conjecture,  or  apprehension. 

There  is  no  ceremony,  no  pledge  of  alle- 
giance, no  occasion  made  patriotically 
memorable  in  the  mind  of  the  boy  when 
he  casts  his  first  vote.  No  one  makes 
him  welcome  as  a  citizen  of  the  country. 
He  registers  in  his  home  town  in  an  auto- 
matic way,  and  if  he  thinks  of  voting  in 
the  future  as  an  obnoxious  duty  that  in- 
terferes with  his  business  or  week  ends, 
it  is  surely  not  entirely  his  own  fault. 

In  some  schools  there  is  an  increasing 
attempt  to  bring  his  rather  localized  ex- 
perience into  relation  to  the  broader 
questions  of  the  day,  and  into  the  national 
political  life,  but  the  mass  of  boys  depend 
upon  the  newspapers  and  such  discussion 
as  they  stimulate  or  hear  among  their 
fellows.  This  is  good  so  far  as  it  goes, 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE      133 

but  it  is  too  critical,  too  superficial,  too 
opinionated,  too  provincial  to  serve  the 
great  national  need  of  America  in  the 
crucial  test  of  elections.  Despite  our 
many  thousands  of  educational  organiza- 
tions it  is  very  difficult  to  obtain  an  im- 
partial and  scientific  statement  on  any 
political  controversy.  There  are  many 
briefs  for  one  side  or  the  other,  but  few 
impartial  statements  that  are  not  special 
pleading. 

The  indifference  and  ignorance  of  "the 
native-born^  voter  J£e_reaj[  impediments 
to  Americanism.  A  vote  is  a  practical 
as  much  knowledge  and 


experience  in  its  use  as  any  other  respon- 
sible act  of  life.  You  cannot  teach  a  man 
to  handle  a  gun  by  a  series  of  lectures  on 
the  ethics  of  warfare.  Neither  can  you 
teach  a  man  to  handle  a  vote  by  the  aver- 
age treatise  on  civil  government. 

In  our  failure  to  find  this  training  in 
the  public  school,  we  turn  next  to  the 
political  school,  the  club,  the  district  or- 
ganization. Here  we  find  every  mechan- 
ism possible  for  getting  the  vote  and  hold- 
ing it,  but  practically  none  for  training  or 
instructing  that  vote.  It  is  easy  to  find 


134  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

a  dozen  men  to  help  a  prospective  voter 
to  obtain  his  citizenship  papers,  but  very 
difficult  to  find  one  man  or  an  institution 
to  educate  him  in  Americanism  and  Eng- 
lish, enabling  him  to  qualify.  It  is  easy 
to  find  men  who  condemn  the  sinking  of 
the  Lusitania  and  watchful  waiting  in 
Mexico,  but  hard  to  find  a  man  who  has 
a  clear,  practical  idea  of  how  he  will  regis- 
ter that  protest  in  November.  Thou- 
sands will  vote  for  Mr.  Roosevelt  as  their 
protest  in  case  he  is  nominated.  But 
suppose  Mr.  Roosevelt  is  not  nominated. 
Have  they  thought  of  their  next  effective 
protest  at  the  polls?  Justice  Hughes 
perhaps.  But  who  knows  where  he 
stands  on  these  questions?  Those  of  us 
who  have  worked  with  him  as  governor 
of  New  York,  and  knew  him,  take  no 
risks,  but  how  about  the  average  voter 
who  has  no  such  knowledge  and  must 
make  up  his  own  mind  ? 

As  shown  in  the  preceding  chapter  the 
acquiring  of  citizenship  by  aliens  does 
not  have  for  its  main  object  the  vote. 
To  him,  it  is  connected  more  closely  with 
a  job,  with  getting  on  in  America,  with 
freedom  from  the  tyranny  of  his  own 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE  135 

country  and  from  military  service,  and 
with  gain.  The  power  of  the  vote  is, 
generally  speaking,  an  unknown  quantity 
to  him,  until  he  has  been  here  some  time 

—  often  it  represents  something  which 
he  can  sell,  or  which  he  has  to  have  to 
keep  his  job  —  ideals  set  before  him  by 
some  native  American.     It  is  a  rather 
curious  thing  that  the  padrone  system 
had  its  real  origin  in  our  political  rather 
than  in  our  industrial  system.    The  pa- 
drone is  a  labor  boss  who  furnishes  men 
to  industrial  organizations,  and  in  return 
for  keeping  up  the  supply  of  men,  has  the 
privilege  of  housing  and    feeding  them 

—  making  his  profit  from  the  employment 
fees,  housing,  and  supplies.    The  padrone, 
however,  is  usually  a  political  leader,  not 
in  the  camp  or  quarry  or  mine  where  the 
industry  is  located,  but  in  the  city,  which 
is  the  source  of  the  supply  of  men.     It 
was  generally   understood  that  the  pa- 
drone, in  return  for  the  contract  to  furnish 
men,  would  deliver  the  foreign-born  vote 
in  his  district  in  favor  of  the  candidate 
acceptable  to  the  company  with  whom 
he  had  contracted.     He  saw  to  it  that 
his  countrymen  were  naturalized  and  how 


136  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

they  voted.  In  this  way  the  position  of 
the  padrone  became  impregnable. 

If  a  community  as  a  whole  fails  to  use 
the  immigrant  as  a  political  and  citizen- 
ship asset,  some  other  force  in  the  com- 
munity is  fairly  sure  to  awaken  to  his 
political  usefulness.  The  only  way  in 
which  a  community  can  "control"  its 
alien  vote  is  by  controlling  preparation 
for  citizenship.  Most  communities,  far 
from  controlling  it,  have  not  yet  de- 
veloped interest  in  it.  The  American 
community,  without  night  schools,  with- 
out interest,  without  responsibility  for  the 
Americanism  of  one  third  or  one  half  of 
its  residents,  is  the  real  parent  of  this 
"alien"  vote. 

The  ignorance  of  the  newly  naturalized 
voter  is  different  from  that  of  the  Ameri- 
can. But  like  the  indifference  and  igno- 
rance of  the  American  voter,  the  ignorance 
of  the  foreign  voter  is  largely  a  social 
matter,  and  is  subject  to  the  same  reme- 
dies. In  other  words,  it  is  not  merely 
instruction  in  English  and  Civics,  the 
usual  preparation  for  citizenship,  that 
makes  an  immigrant  a  good  voter  or  a 
bad  one.  A  very  great  deal  depends  upon 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE  137 

his  social  background,  upon  the  under- 
standing and  point  of  view  he  has  been 
able  to  develop  as  a  result  of  his  contacts 
with  American  institutions  and  American 
community  life.  To  develop  a  social 
understanding  large  enough  and  deep 
enough  to  make  a  man  grasp  readily  a 
national  political  issue  in  all  its  impor- 
tance, and  the  subtler  aspects  of  com- 
munity issues  and  legislation,  when  they 
come  up  to  the  vote,  is  a  tremendous  task 
—  not  a  task  that  even  a  very  intelligent 
and  educated  immigrant  can  compass  for 
himself.  This,  in  a  political  sense,  is  the 
heart  of  our  present  difficulty  with  the 
naturalized  voter.  His  social  assimila- 
tion has  not  been  sufficiently  thorough  to 
give  him  the  background  he  needs  at  the 
polls  or  to  enable  him  to  find  himself 
among  the  various  political  parties  and 
sub-parties. 

Now,  the  average  voter  is  too 
thoroughly  localized.  In  other  words, 
his  political  status  in  America  is  very 
much  like  his  social  status.  He  becomes 
fixed  in  a  neighborhood,  a  colony,  a  ward, 
and  he  never  learns  to  think  of  himself 
nationally.  Politically,  the  issues  are 


138  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

presented  to  him  in  the  impersonation 
of  local  figures  and  interests  —  Max 
Schroeder  at  the  corner  saloon,  or  Tim 
Connolly  of  the  Labor  Council.  National 
issues  are  invariably  translated  in  ward 
terms  and  the  immigrant  accepts  them 
at  this  valuation.  After  this  kind  of 
political  tradition  has  persisted  for  a  few 
generations  the  result  is  a  community  or 
colony  of  hopelessly  provincial  voters, 
keenly  alive  to  the  immediate  practical 
profit  or  loss  involved  in  any  political 
issue,  almost  oblivious  of  the  fact  that 
the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number 
is  the  thing  for  which  the  citizen  of  a 
Republic  is  to  vote  if  he  is  to  fulfill  his 
republicanism. 

The  social  education  of  Americans  is 
difficult  enough.  We  need  to  American- 
ize the  American  voter  quite  as  much  as 
the  foreign.  But  with  the  immigrant  the 
problem  of  social  education  as  a  prerequi- 
site to  political  freedom  and  competence 
is  a  far  more  difficult  thing.  The  truth 
is  that  nobody  can  coach  him  in  American 
life.  He  needs  to  live  it  and  must  be 
allowed  to  do  so,  if  we  are  to  have  com- 
petent voters.  In  proportion  to  the 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE      139 

breadth  of  his  human  contacts,  and  to 
the  number  and  variety  of  American  in- 
stitutions which  he  touches  he  will  be 
informed  upon  those  subjects  and  points 
of  view  that  fit  him  for  the  actual  exer- 
cise of  the  vote. 

This  is  a  social  responsibility  on  the 
part  of  America  toward  its  foreign-born 
citizens.  It  does  not  belong  to  the  courts, 
or,  to  any  great  degree,  to  the  schools. 
These  two  agencies  are  to  see  to  it  that 
the  candidate  for  naturalization  knows 
and  can  use  the  English  language,  is  of 
good  moral  character,  and  is  "attached 
to  the  principles  of  the  Constitution." 
But  at  the  best,  the  preparation  for  and 
the  process  of  naturalization  alone  does 
not  Americanize,  does  not  qualify  a  man 
for  the  American  vote  in  nation,  state, 
or  city. 

With  some  sense  of  this,  the  schools 
that  prepare  for  citizenship  have  within 
the  last  year  been  revising  their  courses 
in  "civics"  for  aliens.  They  have  put 
aside  the  paraphrases  of  the  Constitution 
which  have  been  the  traditional  text- 
books for  these  classes  and  they  have 
evolved  a  system  of  "community  civics" 


140  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

designed  to  teach  the  alien  his  privileges 
and  responsibilities  in  their  simplest 
form,  with  direct  reference  to  his  every- 
day life  and  his  own  immediate  points  of 
contact  with  the  laws  of  public  health, 
of  property,  of  parents'  obligations,  etc. 

This  is  a  much-needed  movement. 
But  it  should  be  accompanied  by  some 
organized  effort  to  make  the  immigrant 
voters  of  this  country  an  entirely  intelli- 
gent political  force.  I  am  referring  of 
course  to  the  great  body  of  adult  immi- 
grants who  have  attained  most  of  their 
education  in  this  country,  outside  of  work 
hours.  It  would  be  invidious  to  suggest 
that  certain  of  our  immigrant  voters 
need  any  assistance  whatever  for  intelli- 
gent voting. 

How  can  we  best  put  the  newly  natural- 
ized immigrant,  alert,  well-intentioned, 
but  usually  socially  and  politically  un- 
assimilated,  in  touch  with  the  political 
issues  of  the  day  in  their  large  national 
bearings,  and  in  their  practical  expression. 

I  should  like  to  see  the  political  forum, 
in  its  best  form,  become  a  recognized  part  of 
American  life.  It  is  needed  for  the  native 
born.  It  is  practically  indispensable  for 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE  141 

the  foreign  born.  It  would  not  be  non- 
partisan,  nor  attempt  to  be.  The  forums 
would  be  conducted  by  the  parties  sepa- 
rately, but  always  openly,  regularly,  as  a 
routine  of  community  series  of  meetings 
for  discussion  and  information.  And  the 
party  that  did  its  educational  work  best, 
and  placed  its  ideas  and  objects  most 
frankly  in  the  light,  would  in  the  long  run 
get  the  votes.  But  it  would  have  to  be 
a  sustained  piece  of  work,  carried  on 
from  year  to  year,  with  quite  as  much 
zeal  and  quite  as  much  sustained  party 
support  after  elections  as  before.  The 
most  significant  effort  made  in  this  direc- 
tion was  tried  by  the  Progressive  Party 
through  its  Progressive  Service.1  This 
educational  division  carried  on  political 
educational  work  throughout  the  coun- 
try and  drafted  legislation,  though  it  was 
not  in  office  nor  directly  responsible  to 
the  people  for  its  enactment.  It  failed 
temporarily  because  the  average  voter 
does  not  yet  respond  to  national  issues 
in  the  absence  of  danger  and  conflict ;  of 
controversy  and  emergency.  He  has 

1  "  A  New  Spirit  in  Party  Organization." 
The  North  American  Review,  June,  1914. 


142  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

been  too  long  taught  that  he  can  learn 
all  he  needs  to  know  at  election  time. 
This  attempt  to  realize  an  ideal  ahead 
of  its  time  has  suffered  defeat  but  tem- 
porarily. So  long  as  the  party  system 
prevails  there  will  exist  a  need  for  polit- 
ical education  by  parties.  How  long  it 
will  be  before  leaders  are  freed  from  the 
spoils  system  and  recognize  this  obliga- 
tion cannot  be  foretold. 

Athens  feared  that  if  the  town  hall 
grew  too  small  to  hold  a  convocation  of 
the  people,  Hellenic  democracy  would 
perish  from  the  earth.  Here  in  America 
we  cannot  revert  to  the  town  meeting. 
But  in  the  interests  of  Americanism,  I 
believe  the  political  parties  of  this  coun- 
try will  be  forced,  by  the  developing 
intelligence  of  public  sentiment,  to  create 
systems  of  party  education  which  will 
have  to  bear  the  light  of  day  —  and  the 
challenge  of  severe  competition.  Party 
education  now  means  campaign  literature, 
speeches  only  by  candidates  or  for  them, 
a  virulent  emotionalism  which  even  the 
unsophisticated  voter  no  longer  takes 
seriously.  A  party  "stands  firm"  for 
"social  and  industrial  justice"  for  all 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE      143 

men  and  women  alike.  But  these  same 
men  and  women,  who  do  not  attend  con- 
ventions, who  are  sorely  in  need  of  social 
and  industrial  justice  or  who  would  like 
to  help  in  securing  it  for  others,  never 
learn  what  its  concrete  definition  is,  or 
how  to  secure  it  through  the  vote.  Our 
political  parties  need,  first  of  all,  great 
leaders.  And  after  the  great  leaders  we 
need  an  informed  and  alert  and  sensitive 
citizen  body,  insistent  for  information, 
undismayed  by  long  ballot  sheets,  at 
home  among  political  ideas.  We  need 
party  laboratories,  publicists  not  adver- 
tisers, a  thoroughgoing  machinery  for 
getting  studies  and  facts  and  opinions  to 
people  in  a  form  in  which  they  can  weigh 
and  use  them. 

The  very  introduction  of  the  word 
"political"  revives  the  conventional  fear 
that  the  immigrant  will  be  "used"  in 
dark  and  dangerous  ways.  It  is  certainly 
true  that  he  has  been.  But  what  America 
really  needs  to  face  with  greater  appre- 
hension is  the  immigrant  that  is  not  used. 
The  time  has  passed  for  a  negative  posi- 
tion. How  is  the  political  force  of  the 
foreign-born  residents  and  citizens  to  be 


144  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

intelligently  and  practically  connected 
with  the  body  politic?  It  is  folly  to  let 
our  fear  of  the  word  "political"  justify 
our  gross  neglect  of  the  political  intelli- 
gence and  potential  power  of  from  one 
third  to  one  half  the  population  of  many 
of  our  important  cities  and  towns.  The 
use  of  the  immigrant  politically  is  more 
likely  than  anything  else  to  put  an  end 
to  the  political  abuse  of  him. 

Many  Americans  have  taken  some  sat- 
isfaction during  late  years  in  attribut- 
ing radical  votes  and  platforms  to  the 
foreign  born.  And  yet  in  the  last  presi- 
dential election  Ohio,  with  a  population 
of  about  half  that  of  New  York,  and  with 
a  native-born  percentage  of  87.4  as  against 
New  York's  69.8,  cast  27,000  more  votes 
for  the  Socialist  candidate.  In  that  elec- 
tion, New  York  state,  with  a  foreign- 
born  population  of  30  per  cent,  gave  the 
Socialist  candidate  a  vote  amounting  to 
seven  tenths  of  one  per  cent  of  its  total 
population.  In  the  same  year  Kansas, 
with  a  foreign-born  population  of  8  per 
cent,  gave  the  Socialist  candidate  a  vote 
amounting  to  seven  tenths  of  one  per 
cent  of  its  total  population,  or  twice  the 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE  145 

New  York  Socialist  vote.  Oklahoma, 
with  a  native-born  population  of  97.6 
per  cent,  cast  a  Socialist  vote  amounting 
to  2|  per  cent  of  its  population,  or  nearly 
four  times  the  ratio  for  New  York,  nearly 
twice  the  ratio  for  Illinois,  where  the 
foreign  born  are  one  fifth  of  the  popula- 
tion, and  two  and  one  half  times  the  ratio 
for  Pennsylvania,  where  the  foreign-born 
population  is  almost  one  fifth  of  the  total. 
One  of  the  most  dangerous  conditions 
—  at  least  potentially  —  concerning  the 
alien  vote  we  have  deliberately  brought 
upon  ourselves.  In  ten  states  of  the 
Union  we  have  been  for  years  allowing  im- 
migrants to  vote  upon  their  first  papers. 
In  the  last  presidential  election  declarants 
voted  in  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Indiana, 
Kansas,  Missouri,  Nebraska,  South  Da- 
kota, Texas,  Oregon,  and  Wisconsin.  The 
result  has  been  shameless  grafting  and 
fraud.  In  Nebraska  the  alien  in  order 
to  vote  need  only  have  been  in  the  state 
six  months,  and  have  made  his  declara- 
tion thirty  days  before  election.  In 
other  words,  an  Italian  or  Russian  or 
Pole  or  Armenian  or  Turk  who  landed  at 
Ellis  Island  about  six  months  before  the 


146  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

last  presidential  election  —  say  in  April, 
1912  —  and  who  went  out  to  Nebraska 
at  once  and  lived  there  until  fall,  making 
his  declaration  in  October,  could  have 
voted  at  the  last  presidential  election; 
and  this  absolutely  without  reference  to 
whether  he  knew  a  word  of  English,  under- 
stood a  single  provision  of  the  Constitution, 
or  knew  even  the  name  of  the  political  party 
with  which  he  was  voting. 

The  one  great  fact  that  stands  out  is 
this:  That  the  voting  quality  of  a  num- 
ber  of  our  states  is  not^and  never  has 
been  subject  to  review. Jrom  tha.point-.of 
view  of  national  political  ideals,  of  Ameri- 
eanisinr  ^rtong  as  we  have  crEIzens"  of 
•states  "that  vote  who  are  not  citizens  of 
the  nation,  we  have  a  disrupting  force  in 
our  national  political  organization.  Citi- 
zenship in  the  United  States  is  constitu- 
tionally defined  in  Amendment  14  thus : 
"All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the 
United  States,  and  subject  to  the  juris- 
diction thereof,  are  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  and  of  the  states  in  which  they 
reside/'  No  other  kind  of  citizenship  is 
provided  for  in  the  Constitution.  A  state 
may  need  voters,  and  undoubtedly  many 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE  147 

of  the  first-paper  men,  pioneers  in  our 
western  states,  have  voted  wisely  and 
well,  with  a  grasp  of  local  conditions. 
But  because  of  the  greater  variety  in  our 
present  immigration  as  compared  with 
that  of  former  years,  and  because  Ameri- 
can citizenship,  including  the  power  to 
vote,  is  a  matter  for  national  valuation,  a 
state  should  no  more  arrogate  unto  itself 
the  power  to  make  its  own  citizens  than 
to  coin  its  own  money  or  set  up  its  own 
postal  system.  The  time  has  come  for 
conscious  statesmanship,  for  international 
purposeful  dealing  with  this  fundamental 
element  in  our  political  organization. 

A  situation  quite  as  much  in  need  of 
national  review  concerns  the  relation  of 
women  to  citizenship.  An  immigrant 
woman,  no  matter  what  her  educational 
qualifications  or  length  of  residence  in  this 
country,  becomes  a  citizen  by  the  act  of 
her  husband  or  father's  naturalization. 
This  means  in  eleven  states  of  the  Union 
that  she  can  vote  at  all  elections.  But 
immigrant  women  are  very  generally 
years  behind  the  men  in  Americanization. 
They  lack  not  only  the  social  assimilation 
which  makes  them  fit  to  vote,  but  even 


148  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

the  technical  requirements  for  citizenship, 
which  their  husbands  or  fathers  have  at 
least  mastered.  And  yet  of  3,723,971 
possible  women  voters  in  the  suffrage 
states,  902,129  are  foreign  born  —  one 
quarter  of  the  whole  number.  Of  late  a 
number  of  our  western  suffragist  leaders 
have  assured  us  that  the  immigrant 
woman  makes  a  good  voter  —  that  she 
is  conscientious  about  going  to  the  polls, 
and  seems  to  take  a  direct  and  personal 
interest  in  registering  her  opinion  on 
matters  that  she  knows  to  affect  the  wel- 
fare of  her  home,  her  husband,  her  chil- 
dren. But  there  are  many  thousands  of 
immigrant  women  in  this  country  who 
have  not  mastered  the  English  language 
in  even  a  small  degree,  who  have  had  no 
opportunity  to  learn  our  civic  ideals, 
whose  homes  are  not  American  homes. 
The  thing  that  concerns  us  is  not  that 
this  vote  of  immigrant  women  will  cor- 
rupt our  political  situation.  It  is  rather 
to  lament  that  so  much  civic  force  and 
interest,  of  inestimable  value  in  political 
rating,  is  lost  to  the  community  and  to 
the  nation. 

We  must  know  and  direct  the  political 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE  149 

forces,  or  we  shall  direct  the  social  and 
civic  forces  in  vain.  "Civic  conscious- 
ness "  is  coming  to  be  too  diluted  a 
quantity,  too  general,  too  philosophic, 
too  "broad"  and  non-partisan  to  act 
promptly  or  definitely.  It  stands  for  too 
much,  directs  too  little.  The  civic  wel- 
fare of  towns  has  become  separate  from 
their  political  welfare.  And  the  real 
danger  of  the  salutary  modern  social  and 
civic  movements  that  are  spreading 
through  our  cities  and  towns  is  that  it 
tends  to  become  so.  Most  American 
towns,  as  such,  never  think  of  their  im- 
migrants, representing  one  third  or  one 
half  of  the  town  in  numbers,  as  voters  or 
as  potential  voters  —  or  make  any  effort 
to  bring  their  force  into  play  in  any 
national  way,  as  a  part  of  public  senti- 
ment. They  are  left  to  the  by-ways  of 
politics.  And  it  is  small  wonder  if  they 
learn  the  habit  and  tricks  of  the  by-ways. 
Hundreds  of  immigrants  in  small  towns 
to-day  are  getting  their  political  educa- 
tion from  just  two  sources :  the  ward  boss, 
who  tells  them  no  more  than  he  thinks 
they  need  to  know;  and  the  foreign 
language  newspaper,  which  is  published  in 


150  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

the  big  city  and  circulated  in  hundreds  of 
small  towns  over  a  wide  radius.  There 
are  at  least  1500  such  papers  in  the  coun- 
try, reaching  more  than  9,000,000  regular 
readers  daily.  Many  of  them  have  an  ac- 
knowledged political  interest  and  trend 
—  witness  the  vigor  of  the  campaign  edi- 
torials now  beginning  to  appear  with  such 
calculated  timeliness.  Many  of  the  edi- 
tors of  these  papers  regard  it  as  their  first 
charge  to  instruct  their  fellow  country- 
men in  the  political  events  and  tendencies 
and  issues  of  America.  But  a  very  great 
many  of  these  editors  are  themselves 
not  initiated  in  these  things.  The  force 
that  guides  the  immigrant  to  the  polls 
must  come  more  directly  and  warmly 
from  the  American  center  of  American 
affairs. 

The  American  attitude  of  indifference 
to  the  vote,  of  refusal  to  consider  it  a 
national  privilege  and  a  national  service, 
is  at  bottom  responsible  for  our  difficul- 
ties with  the  immigrant  vote.  When  that 
changes,  and  the  force  of  the  change 
carries  through  the  political  world,  the 
American  vote  will  be  regenerated  among 
native  and  foreign  born  alike.  I  should 


THE  POPULAR  VOTE  151 

make  the  occasion  of  giving  an  immigrant 
the  vote  the  occasion  for  insisting  upon 
the  duties  that  must  go  with  the  exercise 
of  it.  At  present  the  immigrant  is  too 
much  in  possession  of  the  idea  that  it  is 
a  right  and  a  privilege  —  partly  sold  to 
him,  and  which  it  is  his  privilege  —  or 
duty  —  to  sell  or  contribute  to  his  bene- 
factors or  superiors  in  return. 

The  problem  before  the  political  parties 
has  long  been  how  to  extend  the  social 
ideal  and  how  to  make  it  count  in  the 
body  politic.  The  "politicians"  of  vigor 
and  imagination  cherish  a  practical  hope 
of  organizing  the  idealism  of  men,  restor- 
ing human  belief  and  values  to  party 
organization.  In  the  peculiar  oppor- 
tunity now  presented  to  the  country  to 
take  stock  of  its  citizenship,  to  reenforce 
its  unity,  to  justify  itself  as  a  democracy, 
to  make  the  most  of  its  powers,  to  use 
the  intelligence  and  the  ardor  of  its  citi- 
zens of  many  races,  and  to  bring  the 
newest  of  these  into  accord  with  its  ideals 
and  its  practices,  lies  a  great  opportunity 
for  the  political  parties  of  this  country. 
By  an  organized  effort  to  instruct  newly 
naturalized  citizens  in  the  use  of  the 


152  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

American  vote,  and  to  bring  them  into 
real  accord  with  the  social  forces  behind 
the  vote,  we  shall  secure  Americanism  in 
politics,  without  which  we  can  have  no 
genuine  preparedness. 


CHAPTER  VI 
NATIONAL  UNITY 

Military  Preparedness. 
Industrial  Mobilization. 
Universal  Service. 
Americanization. 
International  Duty. 

THE  decision  America  is  called  upon  to 
make  to-day  is  whether  America  shall 
emerge  from  this  world-wide  struggle  as 
a  nation  of  many  peoples  or  whether  it 
will  imperil  its  very  existence  by  remain- 
ing half  native,  half  alien ;  half  free  and 
half  slave  to  foreign  influences. 

We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  bitter  contest 
in  which  the  forces  for  weakness  are  con- 
tending with  those  for  strength  in  terms 
of  fortifications,  battleships,  and  guns 
amidst  the  sordid  influences  of  appro- 
priations, sectional  selfishness,  and  party 
campaign  considerations. 

153 


154  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

Preparedness  means  something  more 
than  a  larger  army  and  navy.  It  means 
also  having  a  united  America  back  of  that 
army  and  navy. 

Shall  we  get  nothing  except  the  ma- 
terial standards  of  preparedness  from  the 
mighty  struggle  in  Europe,  where  nations 
are  contending  for  the  preservation  of 
the  liberties  and  security  we  now  enjoy  ? 
fT  What  will  it  avail  this  nation  to  build 
battleships  and  a  merchant  marine,  if  we 
do  not  at  the  same  time  create  a  nation- 
wide loyalty  that  will  prevent  explosions 
wrecking  their  holds  ? 

Shall  we  strengthen  our  coast  defenses 
and  leave  our  transportation  lines,  upon 
which  they  depend,  to  be  manned  by  un- 
skilled workmen  whom  Americans  have 
not  shown  how  to  love  America,  and  in 
whom  dual  allegiance  still  persists? 
Shall  we  conserve  our  resources  in  mines, 
quarries,  and  fields  and  build  more  fac- 
tories and  man  them  with  discontented 
workmen  who  will  see  American  defenses 
only  in  terms  of  profit  and  advantage  ? 

Shall  we  have  citizens'  training  camps 
and  train  to  higher  efficiency  only  those 
already  filled  with  patriotism,  or  shall 


NATIONAL  UNITY  155 

we  in  these  same  camps  bring  new  and 
old  citizens  together  and  bring  up  the 
ranks  in  discipline  and  efficiency  for  a 
better  America? 

Can  we  become  a  really  strong  nation 
if    Anjerigginization    is    for    native-born 
men  arLdwQmen  only*  while  we  do  noth- 
ing foiHI^^ 
and""womJeii  who  constitute  our  reserve 


"TheseTand  many  other  similar  questions 
must  be  included  in  any  adequate  pro- 
gram of  defense,  and  yet  in  no  council  of 
government  or  of  citizens  have  they  been 
given  the  consideration  their  importance 
demands.  The  great  immediate  task  be- 
fore us  is  mobilization  and  Americani- 
zation, the  welding  of  the  many  races 
and  classes  in  this  country  into  one  en- 
during, steadfast,  efficient  nation. 

The  things  that  make  for  preparedness 
in  peace  or  war,  that  make  France  and 
Germany  the  two  leading  contestants  in 
the  present  war,  are  as  much  social  and 
economic,  as  military  preparedness.  We 
shall  not  attain  this  until  we  have  Ameri- 
canized our  foreign-born  residents  and 
many  of  our  American-born  as  well. 


156  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

We  cannot  do  this  by  legislation  or  proc- 
lamation, but  only  by  the  patriotic  action 
of  each  and  every  resident  in  America 
disciplined  for  national  service. 

Some  one  has  brought  to  America  a 
remarkable  series  of  moving  pictures 
called  "Britain  Prepared."  The  con- 
spicuous thing  about  them  is  that  the 
emphasis  is  put  upon  the  training  of  men, 
the  kind  of  training  we  find  in  the  gym- 
nasium and  in  sports  and  among  boy 
scouts.  Guns  and  battleships  and  horses 
are  there,  to  be  sure,  but  they  are  always 
being  mastered  by  men.  Somehow  in  our 
defense  propaganda  during  the  past  year 
we  have  missed  this  dominant  note.  We 
talk  about  an  increased  army  and  navy 
and  aeroplanes  and  coast  defenses,  but 
we  always  get  the  sense  of  guns  and 
machines  and  mechanics  and  never  the 
sense  of  their  mastery. 

The  defense  bills  in  Congress  this  win- 
ter are  marked  by  the  same  fatal  pre- 
sumption—  that  defense  is  entirely  a 
matter  of  physical  preparedness  and  that 
it  is  to  be  brought  about  chiefly  by  legis- 
lation and  appropriations.  We  are  ap- 
parently looking  only  to  the  immediate 


NATIONAL  UNITY  157 

and  obvious  and  popular  kind  of  prepared- 
ness and  have  not  yet  begun  upon  the 
real  problem  of  preparedness  which  in- 
volves long,  slow,  patient  consideration 
of  many  intricate  matters  vital  to  any 
adequate  national  defense  of  America. 

I  believe  that  the  work  of  the  agitator 
and  propagandist  in  arousing  America 
is  about  done.  The  hundreds  of  volun- 
teer, happy-go-lucky,  hit-and-miss  organi- 
zations throughout  the  country  that  have 
divided  public  attention  with  Congress 
have  accomplished  their  task.  We  are 
entering  upon  the  serious  business  of  in- 
vestigation, organization,  and  administra- 
tion. We  are  ready  for  a  policy,  a  pro- 
gram, and  a  leader.  We  are  ready  to  act 
as  a  nation  and  not  as  the  spokesman 
for  any  section  or  race. 

A  thoroughgoing  policy  of  national 
preparedness  to  insure  national  unity  and 
action  cannot  comprise  less  than  five 
main  divisions,  all  proceeding  together 
toward  a  common  goal.  They  are  mili- 
tary preparedness,  industrial  mobilization, 
universal  service,  Americanization,  and 
international  duty. 

Military  defense  has  centered  chiefly 


158  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

upon  the  army  and  navy  and  has  dealt 
largely  with  numbers  and  appropriations. 
The  pending  measures  can  hardly  be  said 
to  represent  a  policy.  The  conflicting 
provisions  scarcely  constitute  a  program. 
Let  us  see  how  we  have  approached 
this  subject:  Under  the  guise  of  a  first 
and  immediate  defense  step  we  are  urged 
to  provide  for  a  tunnel  through  the 
Rocky  Mountains ;  for  a  road  connecting 
two  forts  in  Georgia;  for  rifle  clubs,  the 
Federal  government  to  supply  the  rifles ; 
for  a  national  aviation  corps  school;  for 
volunteer  training  camps  for  high  school 
students ;  for  the  purchase  of  the  Chesa- 
peake &  Delaware  Canal ;  for  a  naval  or  a 
military  academy  in  this  or  that  particu- 
lar state;  for  a  "multiroad  highway"; 
for  a  marvelous  continental  army  on  a 
voluntary  plan,  whereby  88,000  men  are 
to  enlist  for  six  months,  a  second  88,000 
within  sixty  days,  and  so  on  "as  long  as 
in  the  opinion  of  the  President  this  pro- 
cedure is  necessary  to  public  welfare." 
This  last  bill  well  illustrates  the  detached 
point  of  view  we  have  adopted  toward 
the  defense  issue  —  an  army  of  volun- 
teers, i.e.  whoever  see  fit,  is  to  be 


NATIONAL  UNITY  159 

raised  overnight,  and  another  army  two 
months  later  and  so  on,  so  long  as  the 
President  thinks  there  is  any  danger. 
Then  this  volunteer  force  is  to  dissolve 
into  civilian  life,  and  we  are  all  to  rest 
easy  again  until  the  next  scare  comes  — 
when  we  shall  again  leave  it  to  the  most 
adventurous  or  the  most  conscientious 
among  us  to  make  up  a  hasty  miscel- 
laneous volunteer  force  to  defend  our 
homes  and  our  liberty. 

There  is  the  usual  supply  of  academic 
bills  providing  for  commissions  to  inves- 
tigate this  or  that  aspect  of  defense.  No 
doubt  accurate  information  and  therefore 
investigation  on  many  points  is  necessary, 
but  —  the  commission  is  too  often  a  death 
chamber.  By  one  bill  a  joint  committee 
of  the  House  and  Senate  is  instructed  as 
one  of  a  series  of  academic  charges  to 
"  investigate  the  advisability  of  universal 
service/'  The  problem  has  come  upon 
the  horizon,  so  to  speak,  and  in  a  leisurely 
and  philosophical  way  we  get  out  our  field 
glasses  to  observe  it. 

We  have  been  doing  too  many  sums 
in  our  defense  propaganda.  How  many 
men  in  the  army,  how  many  millions  of 


160  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

dollars  for  the  navy,  —  all  of  these  im- 
portant, —  but  when  an  adequate  plan  is 
worked  out  for  training  every  man  and 
woman,  according  to  his  or  her  capacity, 
the  numbers  will  take  care  of  themselves. 
Until  we  are  all  "volunteers"  we  can  dis- 
pense with  mathematics. 

The  defense  legislation  of  the  year  is 
evidence  of  heartbreaking  national  fail- 
ure. The  collection  of  sectional,  per- 
sonal, sometimes  obviously  dishonest, 
and,  at  best,  ill-considered  bills,  evidences 
a  graver  charge  than  the  political  "expe- 
diencies" to  which  we  are  well  enough  ac- 
customed. They  are  a  testimony  to  the 
faithlessness  of  legislators  in  the  highest 
places  of  the  land,  a  miserable  failure  in 
patriotism,  and  that  they  have  gone  on 
so  many  months  unchallenged  is  another 
proof  of  the  supine  patience,  flabbiness, 
and  stupidity  of  the  average  American 
citizen. 

What  should  we  have  done  ?  We  had 
ample  warning  when  Congress  adjourned 
in  1915  that  we  would  face  the  issue  of 
preparedness  as  a  vital  compelling  matter 
in  1916.  Instead  of  depending  upon 
separate  and  often  conflicting  reports  from 


NATIONAL  UNITY  161 

various  departments  and  staff  officers, 
the  party  in  power  should  have  had 
in  hand  in  December  —  when  Congress 
reassembled  —  the  outline  of  a  national 
policy,  substantiated  by  certified  facts, 
along  which  a  series  of  bills  could  have 
been  drafted  to  meet  the  needs  at  all 
points,  and  to  avoid  duplications  at  any 
point.  Then  the  reserves  of  the  ma- 
jority party  should  have  begun  their  own 
nation-wide  campaign  to  carry  their 
program.  Failing  this,  the  minority  party 
in  Congress  had  its  opportunity.  Such  a 
plan  would  have  rallied  all  the  citizenship 
force  for  defense  in  support  of  its  program 
and  would  have  avoided  the  conflicts 
that  now  wage  throughout  the  land. 
This  program  broadly  conceived  would 
have  commanded  the  most  comprehen- 
sive information  in  the  country ;  not  only 
from  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion on  transportation ;  from  the  Federal 
trade  commission  on  industrial  capacities 
and  reserves;  from  the  Public  Health  \ 
Service  on  port  conditions;  from  the  V 
Federal  reserve  board  on  credit;  from 
the  Department  of  Labor  on  conserving 
men  and  stabilizing  labor  and  American- 


162  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

izing  aliens,  but  it  would  have  had  the 
cooperation  of  such  organizations  as  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  and  the 
United  States  Chamber  of  Commerce. 
The  best  thought  of  the  country  would 
have  been  crystallized,  and  instead  of  the 
prevailing  chaos  we  would  have  a  pro- 
gram free  from  partisan  or  sectional  in- 
fluences. Instead  of  haggling  over  the 
number  of  men,  and  where  to  get  the 
money,  and  resurrecting  letters  from  files 
to  prove  responsibility,  we  would  be  re- 
apportioning  our  army  posts  on  the  basis 
of  national  defense,  instead  of  on  the 
basis  of  a  civil  war ;  we  would  be  locating 
our  munition  plants  in  safe  places;  we 
would  be  building  model  ammunition 
plants,  we  would  have  an  aviation  corps 
and  training  schools  worthy  of  the  name 
—  and  Villa  would  not  have  raided  Texas. 
We  are  about  where  we  started  so  far 
as  actual  accomplishment  is  concerned. 
I  think  but  little  of  writing  a  statute  and 
appropriating  money  until  we  see  who  is 
to  spend  the  money  and  where.  Nine 
tenths  of  the  achievement  for  success  lies 
in  the  organization  and  administration 
which  follows  the  passing  of  laws.  We 


NATIONAL  UNITY  163 

are  in  the  Congressional  eleventh  hour 
still  agitating  for  a  council  to  gather 
the  necessary  information,  and  propose 
a  plan,  which  the  Cabinet  officers  should 
have  had  in  hand  and  operation  jointly 
months  ago.  The  whole  situation  has 
become  so  muddled  that  there  is  no  one 
non-partisan,  scientific,  accurate,  efficient, 
dependable  source  to  which  one  can  go 
and  obtain  the  information  necessary  to 
formulate  a  policy  or  outline  a  program, 
and  we  have  not  yet  established  our  first 
line  of  defense  in  an  unassailable  position. 

The  mobilization  of  industry  is  as  im- 
portant as  the  mobilization  of  men.  The 
enlisted  men  must  be  taken  from  offices 
and  shops  and  we  must  still  maintain  our 
output  in  products,  get  it  to  the  places 
it  is  needed,  when  it  is  needed,  and  in 
prime  condition.  Soldiers  without  sup- 
plies and  arms  are  useless ;  as  are  civilians 
behind  the  line. 

The  business  of  industry  is  to  meet  the 
demands  and  opportunities  of  foreign 
markets  and  to  supply  the  needs  of 
America ;  to  transport  men  and  supplies 
upon  short  notice  on  a  large  scale. 

The  work  of  industrial  preparedness  is 


164  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

not  the  primary  task  of  government  — 
it  is  the  obligation  of  every  plant  in 
America,  every  leader  at  the  head  of  it, 
every  workman  within  it. 

America  has  capital,  resources,  inven- 
tions, and  leadership.  It  is  short  of 
average  men  to  meet  its  industrial  as  well 
as  citizenship  needs.  The  country  needs 
to  keep  every  able-bodied  man  in  America 
by  making  him  an  efficient,  loyal  citizen 
and  by  giving  him,  not  a  job,  but  a  stake 
in  the  industry  and  a  home  stake  in  the 
country. 

First  of  all  in  mobilizing  industries  we 
need  an  inventory  so  the  government  may 
know  the  location  and  capacity  of  its 
plants  and  who  mans  them;  what  the 
investment  is  and  whether  there  are  any 
international  strings  tied  to  the  business 
and  of  what  kind.  It  needs  to  know  its 
present  capacity,  what  it  makes  best,  and 
how  far  its  capacity  can  be  increased, 
if  need  be.  It  needs  to  know  how  its 
products  are  transported  and  marketed ; 
whether  army  supplies  have  ever  been 
made  and  what  agreements  might  be 
entered  into.  After  twenty  months  of 
the  war,  the  schedule  for  such  an  inven- 


NATIONAL  UNITY  165 

tory  has  been  formulated  by  a  volunteer 
committee  and  paid  for  with  private 
funds ! 

This  is  the  Industrial  Preparedness 
Committee  of  the  Naval  Consulting 
Board,  of  which  Mr.  Howard  Coffin  is 
chairman.  It  proposes  first  to  take  an 
inventory  of  the  resources  of  30,000  in- 
dustries, each  to  be  covered  by  an  en- 
gineer. This  in  itself  is  a  magnificent 
educational  measure.  It  will  make  these 
engineers  and  industries  think  about  a 
great  many  questions  they  have  not 
faced  before.  This  Committee  has 
secured  the  cooperation  of  the  Associated 
Advertising  Clubs  of  the  World,  of  which 
Mr.  Herbert  Houston  is  president.  This 
insures  the  most  widespread  and  accurate 
publicity  of  work  and  results,  free  from 
any  political  manipulation.  It  also  in- 
sures a  highly  intelligent  and  forceful 
education  of  the  public,  free  from  self- 
interest  or  organization  interest.  The 
unfortunate  thing  is  that  this  inventory 
comes  too  late  for  Congress  to  make  any 
real  use  of  the  results  unless  it  stays  in 
session  very  late.  It  is  also  not  yet  clear 
just  how  these  results  will  be  related  to 


166  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

other  important  fields  or  whether  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  will  bury  them 
somewhere.  The  essential  thing,  how- 
ever, is  that  we  have  a  wholly  satisfactory 
industrial  preparedness  program  under 
way  in  the  hands  of  men  the  country 
trusts  for  ability,  integrity,  efficiency,  and 
knows  to  be  without  self-interest. 

So  far  as  I  am  aware  we  are  not  deal- 
ing with  the  conservation  of  resources  in 
any  such  way,  as  this  inventory  applies 
only  to  manufacturing.  I  believe  the 
different  Federal  departments  have  been 
called  upon  to  make  some  such  survey 
and  report,  but  its  results  seem  not  to 
have  found  their  way  into  action  nor  to 
have  the  cooperation  of  practical  business 
men.  Agricultural  organization  also  we 
consider  of  little  interest  in  defense,  even 
though  the  land  feeds  the  nation. 

Undoubtedly  a  most  important  factor 
in  our  national  defense  is  transportation. 
The  President  has  recommended  an  in- 
quiry into  railroad  rates  and  regulation, 
but  the  resolution  introduced  does  not 
seem  to  go  beyond  the  subject  of  rates. 
It  does  not  seem  to  include  a  study  of  the 
railroad  situation  by  a  competent  staff 


NATIONAL  UNITY  167 

that  would  be  prepared  to  take  over  and 
operate  the  railroads  for  military  pur- 
poses if  the  necessity  arose;  it  does  not 
imply  that  we  might  need  a  railway  con- 
struction corps  for  use  in  a  military  zone, 
taking  the  places  of  the  aliens  now  em- 
ployed on  this  work.  It  does  not  indi- 
cate that  there  is  need  for  our  army 
officers  and  leading  railway  officers  to  get 
together  in  times  of  peace  in  order  to  pre- 
vent friction  in  time  of  war.  It  does  not 
indicate  that  there  is  need  of  approved 
regulations  which  should  be  formulated 
now  so  they  could  be  put  into  operation 
immediately  should  occasion  arise.  There 
is  no  indication  that  it  might  be  well  to 
provide  a  way  by  which  operating  men 
should  become  army  officers  in  time  of 
war  and  thus  have  the  handling  of  sup- 
plies under  an  efficient  military  direction. 
The  country  is  fortunate  in  having  a 
competent  committee  appointed  by  the 
American  Railway  Association,  Mr.  Fair- 
fax Harrison,  president  of  the  Southern 
Railway  Co.,  Mr.  W.  G.  Besler,  president 
Central  R.  R.  of  N.  J.,  R.  H.  Aishton, 
vice  president,  Chicago  &  Northwestern 
R.  R.,  Chicago,  III,  and  A.  W.  Thomp- 


168  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

son,  general  manager  of  the  Baltimore  & 
Ohio  R.  R. 

The  work  of  this  Committee  has  not 
yet  been  definitely  related  to  the  Federal 
departments  which  could  make  most  use 
of  its  experience,  knowledge,  and  ability. 
It  is  ready  to  devote  itself  to  this  ques- 
tion along  such  important  lines  as  the 
following  among  many  others : 

First,  a  distinct  understanding  between 
the  War  Department  and  the  railroads 
should  be  arrived  at  concerning  the  tariffs 
for  military  traffic,  freight,  passenger,  and 
baggage,  in  order  that  there  may  be  no 
confusion  whatever  on  these  points  when 
the  time  comes  to  move  large  bodies. 

Second,  the  simplification  of  the  settle- 
ment of  railway  accounts  in  consequence  of 
such  agreements. 

Third,  complete  and  competent  agree- 
ment in  regard  to  the  classification  and  traf- 
fic on  impedimenta  accompanying  troops 
so  as  to  deliver  the  burden  of  the  paper 
work  that  ordinarily  nowadays  is  essential 
to  the  shipment  of  such  bodies  and  impedi- 
menta. 

Fourth,  the  physical  operations  of  the 
railroads  in  carrying  supplies  to  mobiliza- 
tion points,  concentration  points,  and  em- 


NATIONAL  UNITY  169 

barkation  points,  must  be  coordinated  and 
regulated.  The  necessity  of  having  a  uni- 
form method  and  a  complete  understanding 
between  the  Department  and  the  railroads 
is  of  course  obvious. 

Fifth,  a  clear  arrangement  should  be  had 
with  the  proper  officials  of  the  railways  in 
regard  to  provisions  for  spurs,  switches,  side 
tracks,  and  all  facilities  for  handling  troops 
and  supplies  on  reaching  mobilization  points 
and  concentration  points  and  embarkation 
points  or  the  base  of  operations. 

"There  should  be  some  means  of  bring- 
ing together  railroad  men,  including  the 
freight  and  passenger  traffic  departments, 
the  construction  and  operating  branches  of 
the  railroads,  in  close  consultation  with  the 
officers  of  the  army  whose  function  it  is  to 
provide  for  the  transportation  of  troops  and 
supplies.  There  should  be  provision  made 
for  a  reserve  corps,  not  only  of  railroad  men, 
but  of  all  that  class  of  civilians  whose 
services  could  be  used  advantageously  in 
the  army  in  a  directing  capacity  —  railroad 
men  of  every  description,  whether  belonging 
to  the  operating  branch  or  the  accounting 
branch,  the  passenger  or  freight  depart- 
ment, or  the  construction  branch.  Auto- 
mobile experts  of  every  class  would  be  in 
very  great  demand.  We  have  a  paper 


170  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

organization  which  would  exactly  fit  the 
accomplishments  of  men  of  that  character. 
Men  having  exceptional  knowledge  of  the 
handling  and  distribution  of  great  quantities 
of  supplies  would  be  invaluable.  Men  re- 
cruited from  all  the  industries  of  peace 
should  form  such  a  reserve  corps  as  would 
be  available  for  immediate  service  upon 
mobilization/' 

The  weakest  point  in  industrial  pre- 
paredness is  the  question  of  labor  supply. 
We  deal  with  resources  and  transporta- 
tion on  the  assumption  that  our  supply  of 
men  is  adequate  and  all  sufficient  in  train- 
ing and  efficiency.  This  is  by  no  means 
the  case,  and  in  order  to  cover  this  defect, 
the  Immigration  Committee  of  the  United 
States  Chamber  of  Commerce  is  making 
an  inventory  of  the  labor  supply  and  its 
conservation.  It  began  its  work  with  a 
questionnaire  upon  the  probable  immi- 
gration after  the  war.  With  the  coopera- 
tion of  the  railways  it  received  934 
replies,  representing  about  20,000  rail 
and  steamship  agents,  based  upon  their 
inquiries  among  some  2,000,000  foreign- 
born  peoples  in  this  country.  The  ques- 
tions covered  were  the  following : 


NATIONAL  UNITY  171 

A.  Are  those  of  foreign  birth  or  parent- 
age in  this  country  saving  money  at  the 
present  time  with  a  view  to  bringing  their 
European    relatives    and    friends    to    this 
country  after  the  War? 

B.  Does    the    personal    correspondence 
which  they  are  receiving  from  Europe  in- 
dicate that  there  will  be  any  considerable 
movement  to  this  country  after  the  War  is 
over,  and  what,  so  far  as  you  can  get  the 
information,  do  the  estimates  indicate  as  to 
the  volume? 

C.  Will  such  immigration  as  does  come 
consist  of  people  who  have  been  working 
on  farms,  or  of  those  from  the  factories  ? 

D.  After  the  War  is  over,  will  there  be 
any    considerable    emigration    from    this 
country  to  Europe  of  those  going  back  to 
live  permanently  there? 

E.  How  great  will  be  the  movement  of 
those  going  back  to  Europe  temporarily 
after  the  War  to  look  after  their  relatives, 
or  through  sentiment  to  view  the  destruc- 
tion of  their  early  homes,  et  cetera,  and  who 
will  return  to  this  country  after  a  short 
visit? 

The  Committee  is  now  following  this 
with  a  schedule  to  industries  covering 
the  source  of  the  labor  supply,  labor 


172  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

turn-over,  methods  of  employment,  pro- 
motions, transfers,  and  voluntary  lay-offs, 
insurance,  and  other  methods  in  use  to 
conserve  the  labor  of  the  country.  It 
includes  inquiries  into  the  living  condi- 
tions, as  housing  and  sanitation,  and  into 
citizenship  and  knowledge  of  English. 

From  the  data  already  at  hand,  it  has 
begun  holding  a  series  of  conferences  with 
industrial  leaders  throughout  the  country, 
looking  toward  the  conserving  of  men, 
keeping  immigrants  in  America,  and 
stabilizing  the  labor  market.  It  is  essen- 
tial, however,  that  the  fields  of  produc- 
tion, transportation,  conservation  of  re- 
sources and  of  the  labor  supply  be  brought 
together  and  a  national  policy  be  worked 
out  as  the  result  of  the  combined  effort. 
It  is  important  that  this  whole  field 
be  related  to  universal  service  and  mili- 
tary preparedness.  Let  us  illustrate  the 
nature  of  the  interdependence. 

In  any  system  of  universal  service 
there  needs  to  be  some  plan  of  industrial 
adjustment,  as  to  time,  payments,  and 
releases  from  work,  so  that  the  burden 
will  not  fall  too  heavily  upon  special 
industries  at  critical  times  of  output. 


NATIONAL  UNITY  173 

The  efficiency  records  of  plants  make  the 
selection  of  good  officers  easier.  There 
needs  to  be  a  careful  handling  of  skilled 
labor  in  order  that  it  may  not  be  with- 
drawn too  heavily  at  vital  points.  Even 
our  voluntary  civilian  training  camps  are 
being  filled  with  cooperation  of  industry, 
which  is  arranging  vacations,  paying 
wages  during  the  training  period,  and 
urging  its  men,  by  competition  and  in 
other  ways,  to  attend.  No  military  sys- 
tem can  operate  successfully  without 
understanding  effort  on  the  part  of  pro- 
duction and  transportation  men.  The 
pursuit  of  Villa  showed  the  absence  of 
this,  and  to  date  it  seems  to  be  largely  a 
moral  victory. 

When  we  have  this  information  along 
many  lines,  industry  is  not  mobilized. 
We  have  but  secured  the  knowledge  to 
begin  the  real  task. 

The  mobilization  of  industry  for 
America's  defense  cannot  stop  with  the 
plant.  Is  the  employer's  responsibility 
ended  with  the  eight-hour  day  and  an 
increase  in  wages?  The  best-equipped 
plant  in  the  world  will  not  give  us  strong, 
able,  efficient  men  unless  they  live  de- 


174  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

cently,  have  the  right  kind  of  recreation, 
and  get  a  home  stake  in  the  country  to 
defend.  There  are  minimum  standards 
in  the  matters  of  numbers,  separation  of 
sexes,  family  privacy,  sanitation,  and 
cleanliness  which  no  American  workman 
can  fall  below  and  be  a  loyal  citizen  fit 
for  defense.  It  is  part  of  the  mobiliza- 
tion of  industry  to  see  that  conditions  do 
not  prevail  which  give  American  defense 
men  unable  or  unwilling  to  defend  it. 

Industrial  preparedness  means  a  knowl- 
edge and  system  by  which  skilled  work- 
men at  strategic  points  in  industry,  sup- 
plies, and  traffic  shall  not  enlist,  but  will 
be  released  at  the  greatest  point  of  effi- 
ciency. Telegraph  companies  for  in- 
stance do  not  encourage  their  men  to 
enlist,  but  are  fitting  them  for  signal  men 
in  time  of  need ! 

We  have  in  all  of  our  preparedness 
activity  failed  to  grasp  the  point  that 
there  can  be  no  industrial  preparedness 
without  the  nationalization  of  business. 
An  inventory  of  resources  and  the  utili- 
zation of  the  full  power  of  each  plant  is 
only  possible  when  all  men  cooperate  for 
a  mutual  end  and  not  when  they  compete 


NATIONAL  UNITY  175 

for  contracts.  The  employer  who  cares 
nothing  about  the  labor  market  so  long 
as  he  has  plenty  of  men  does  little  to 
stabilize  that  market  or  regularize  em- 
ployment or  distribute  men  advanta- 
geously, and  yet  in  the  final  analysis 
defense  comes  back  to  efficient,  loyal, 
individual  men  doing  their  full  duty  at 
some  inconspicuous  post  all  over  the 
country. 

The  nationalization  of  business  is  not 
a  matter  of  legislation,  or  of  regulation, 
or  of  coercion.  It  is  the  duty  and  obliga- 
tion of  each  responsible  person  in  indus- 
try —  all  working  together  on  a  national 
cooperative  basis  instead  of  on  a  local, 
sectional,  competitive  basis.  It  means  a 
new  spirit  abroad  in  business  —  patriotic 
Nationalism. 

We  have  come  to  regard  universal  serv- 
ice, with  a  period  of  compulsory  train- 
ing in  a  military  camp,  as  a  measure  of 
military  defense  only.  We  seem  to  think 
it  means  only  learning  how  to  shoot  and 
acquiring  a  thirst  for  blood.  I  believe 
it  has  a  great  civic  value  hitherto  dis- 
regarded. We  have  two  things  to  acquire 
from  the  training  camp:  individual  pro- 


176  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

ficiency  and  team  work,  and  a  national 
spirirand  point  of  view. 
~~  The  American  factory  and  the  Ameri- 
can city  have  failed  as  a  melting  pot.  — 
The  dog  tent  may  succeed.  It  may  be- 
come the  best  school  of  practical  civics 
there  is  —  a  place  where  all  Americans 
can  meet  together  for  the  common  good 
of  America. 

It  may  restore  the  balance  to  our 
triumvirate  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence —  Liberty,  opportunity,  and 
obligation.  We  have  demanded  and 
used  the  first  two  —  we  have  neglected 
the  third. 

The  civilian  training-camp  movement, 
which  started  at  Plattsburg  and  is  now 
continued  at  Fort  Oglethorpe,  is  the 
biggest  civic  movement  in  America,  and 
when  crystallized  along  the  lines  of  the 
Swiss  system,  will  become  the  dynamo 
for  national  progress  in  America.  There 
can  be  no  question  but  that  America  is 
desperately  in  need  of  some  national 
civic  movement  which  is  in  its  interest 
alone  and  which  represents  nothing  but 
itself. 

America  is  full  of  undisciplined,  native- 


NATIONAL  UNITY  177 

born  young  men  and  has  besides  a  large 
transfusion  of  still  raw  foreigners.  It 
could  not  bestow  any  greater  favor  upon 
its  young  men  than  to  give  all  of  them  the 
benefits  of  military  methods  of  drilling 
and  education.  It  would  "set  them  up" 
physically ;  they  would  acquire  a  knowl- 
edge of  hygiene,  sanitation,  prevention  of 
disease,  etc.,  and  they  would  also  learn,  to 
their  great  advantage,  obedience,  progipt- 
ness,  precision,  re^larity  _of_Jiabits, 
abstJnencefeconomy,  avoidance  of  waste, 
and  respect  for  authority,  all  of  which 
would  make  them  more  competent  for 
their  daily  tasks  —  whatever  they  may 
be.  Germany  perhaps  furnishes  the  best 
example  of  a  well-governed  people,  but 
what  the  world  needs  is  to  govern  itself, 
just  as  the  best  men  are  the  men  who 
exercise  self-control. 

Many  of  our  young  men,  in  their  desire 
to  remain  "independent,"  are  inefficient, 
unreliable,  and  irresponsible ;  they  are  dis- 
obedient, headstrong,  or  rebellious  under 
authority ;  they  are  discourteous,  careless 
of  obligations,  and  indifferent  to  broken 
promises.  The  average  boy  is  prompt 
with  excuses  and  self-justification  under 


178  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

discipline  —  and  this  has  been  seen  most 
conspicuously  in  our  nation's  attitude  in 
the  present  war. 

Inevitably  all  of  this  leads  to  slovenly 
work  ;  to  indifferent  citizenship  ;  to  play 
in  which  entertainment,  not  participation, 
is  the  rule  ;  and  to  a  shifting  of  respon- 
sibility in  all  walks  of  life.  Jn  the  sup- 
plementing of  individual  by  social  ideals  ; 
in  tHeTransition  from  individual  to  social 
conscience;  in  the  great  change  from 
personal  to  social  control  jojmany  indi- 
vidual  affairs,  we  fraye  somehow  lost  the 
finer  traits  of  character  and  those  ancient 

for  strong 
fl.s  for  strong 


I  believe  the  training  camp  is  unparal- 
leled in  its  power  to  develop  social  con- 
sciousness and  social  control,  and  to  show 
men  the  means  by  which  they  can  work 
together  for  a  common  end.  America 
needs  sportsmanship  in  the  best  sense  of 
the  word,  and  the  training  camp  can  give 
it.  America  needs  the  abolition  of  its 
foolish  class  lines,  now  drawn  in  industry 
and  in  society;  emphasized  among  races 
and  by  creeds,  and  nowhere  worse  than 
in  the  army  itself.  There  is  no  place  for 


NATIONAL  UNITY  179 

it  in  the  training  camp.  American  in- 
dustry has  failed  to  Americanize  the 
foreign-born  citizens  through  its  pay 
envelope ;  the  training  camp  may  succeed 
through  the  dog  tent. 

In  our  idea  of  universal  service  we 
should  not  stop  with  the  training  camp. 
There  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men 
and  women,  with  a  desire  to  serve,  that 
cannot  go  to  the  training  camp.  We  have 
throughout  the  country  to-day  a  splendid 
expression  of  the  desire  to  serve. 

I  believe  that  every  citizen  of  this  re- 
public, male  or  female,  and  of  any  age 
after  childhood,  should  have  a  regular 
scheme  of  duties,  a  regular  enlistment 
for  service  of  a  definite  nature  suited  to 
his  or  her  status  of  capacity,  which  he 
must  be  prepared  to  render  upon  demand, 
and  which  he  or  she  must  keep  in  training 
to  deliver.  To  work  out  the  plans  for 
such  service  for  men  and  women  alike, 
whether  in  motor  corps,  red  cross  camps, 
health  service,  or  in  many  other  ways,  may 
well  be  the  charge  of  citizens'  defense  or- 
ganizations, but  they  should  be  related 
to  the  civilian  training  camp  to  maintain 
standards  and  methods  and  unity. 


180  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

The  defense  organizations,  some  fifty 
of  national  name  and  scope,  are  missing 
their  great  opportunity.  They  are  get- 
ting people  to  sign  pledge  cards  focusing 
attention,  as  it  should  be  focused,  on 
legislation  and  party  programs.  But 
they  are  not  lining  up  the  citizenship  of 
the  country  in  definite  citizenship  service. 
And  by  their  lack  of  cooperation  and 
lack  of  actual  information  about  one 
another's  activities,  they  are  further 
splitting  up  and  sectionalizing  sentiment 
where  the  real  necessity  is  to  collect  and 
focus  it.  All  over  the  country,  in  this 
place  or  that,  groups  of  citizens  are  trying 
in  a  promising  way  to  form  definite,  prac- 
tical, little  associations  for  training  and 
defense.  Aside  from  the  training-camp 
movement  now  so  hopefully  developed, 
business  men  are  joining  together  to 
try  to  settle  upon  uniform  ways  of  co- 
operating with  training  camps  and  the 
national  guard  by  making  it  possible  for 
their  employees  to  profit  by  these  and  to 
render  national  service  in  this  way. 
People  that  own  motors  or  own  or  con- 
trol motor  trucks  are  getting  together  to 
see  how  they  could  work  out  the  trans- 


NATIONAL  UNITY  181 

portation  service  which  experts  agree 
would  be  an  absolute  necessity  in  case  of 
war  in  this  country.  Rifle  clubs  are 
being  formed,  business  men  are  training 
one  night  a  week  in  armories,  women  are 
forming  red  cross  branches  with  definite 
courses  of  instruction  in  many  cities, 
schoolboys  are  being  sent  to  camps, 
suburbanites  are  organizing  to  breed 
police  and  army  dogs,  city  tradesmen  are 
organizing  parades. 

But  as  a  whole  the  civilian  defense 
movement  is  confused  and  incoherent,  not 
nationally  coordinated,  having  no  national 
guidance  or  even  suggestion.  If  the  va- 
rious defense  organizations  were  to  get 
together  in  a  spirit  of  cooperation,  they 
could  gather  up  and  unite  these  sporadic 
citizens'  movements  all  over  the  country, 
give  them  standards  of  organization 
and  accomplishment,  start  movements  in 
different  states  which  are  as  yet  practi- 
cally untouched  by  defense  sentiment. 
Just  as  the  Industrial  Preparedness 
Committee  of  the  Naval  Consulting 
Board  is  working  out  the  mobilization 
of  industry  throughout  the  country  down 
to  the  last  practical  detail,  so  the  pre- 


182  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

paredness  organizations  in  combination 
could  work  out  the  mobilization  of 
civilian  resources  and  activities  through- 
out the  country.  In  some  way  all  of 
these  efforts  should  be  brought  into  rela- 
tion with  each  other  under  control  and 
direction  and  discipline.  They  should  be 
associated  with  the  training  camps  and 
recognized  as  volunteer  corps  and  be  given 
the  standing  necessary  to  perfect  their 
organization  and  administer  their  control. 
We  have  passed  the  stage  of  propaganda ; 
we  now  need  organization  and  adminis- 
tration of  volunteer  efforts  if  we  are  not 
to  waste  the  precious  patriotism  and  en- 
thusiasm for  Americanism  throughout 
the  country. 

Americanization  is  basic  preparedness. 
It  is  fundamental  and  enduring.  The 
first  question  is  how  to  nationalize  our 
native-born  American  into  doing  his  duty 
in  the  military  training  camp,  in  his  in- 
dustry, in  his  town,  at  the  polls,  with  the 
welfare  of  the  nation  in  his  mind,  and 
national  service  as  his  purpose.  No 
system  of  laws,  no  plan  of  administration 
will  do  this  —  it  is  a  problem  for  leaders, 
for  education,  for  the  spirit  of  the  youth 


NATIONAL  UNITY  183 

of  America  to  grapple  with.  The  reason 
so  many  public  monuments,  promisingly 
begun  in  America,  fall  through  or  dwindle, 
is  because  it  is  so  difficult,  so  well-nigh 
impossible  without  constantly  renewed 
stimulants,  to  keep  individuals  firm  and 
enthusiastic  in  a  social  and  national 
point  of  view.  The  defense  movement 
has  illustrated  on  a  broader  scale  the 
same  thing  that  has  been  illustrated  in 
this  country  many  times  before  —  the 
American  religion  of  individualism  in 
arrogant  array  against  a  critical  national 
need.  Only  two  things  —  a  rediscovery 
of  a  stern  sense  of  duty  among  American 
youth;  and  a  recovery  of  that  stern 
idealism  that  persistently  exacts  of  men 
a  social  responsibility,  a  consideration  of 
a  first  claim  beyond  the  claim  of  family, 
personal  success,  career  —  can  establish 
American  citizenship  on  a  sound  basis. 
With  the  native  American  these  things 
are,  as  I  have  said,  a  rediscovery.  The 
tradition  exists  and  was  incorporated  in 
the  very  principles  of  our  foundation. 

With  the  immigrants,  it  is  different. 
They  come  to  us,  mostly  adults,  with  cer- 
tain specific  needs  and  tendencies,  and 


184  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

here  we  need  to  assume  a  constructive 
and  painstaking  task  —  that  of  inter- 
preting the  principles  of  Americanism 
and  the  obligations  as  well  as  the  privi- 
leges of  American  citizenship  to  the  men 
we  invite  to  come  here  to  do  American 
work,  and  permit  to  be  a  large  percent- 
age of  the  population  of  many  American 
industrial  towns. 

Immigration  is  a  great  force  in  Ameri- 
can life.  It  is  not,  as  has  often  hitherto 
been  regarded,  a  labor  subject  or  a  health 
subject.  It  is  primarily  a  citizenship 
subject,  to  be  administered  along  the 
broad  lines  of  nationalism  and  the  fu- 
ture best  interests  of  all  America.  It  is 
properly  an  interior  subject,  and  all  of 
our  dealings  with  it  should  proceed  from 
a  consideration  of  conditions  in  America. 
We  admit  or  reject  people  because  of  the 
effect  on  America ;  we  distribute  them  to 
avoid  congestion,  misery,  and  bad  con- 
ditions in  cities  and  to  develop  America ; 
we  educate  them  for  citizenship  in 
America ;  we  protect  them,  looking  again 
toward  a  better  citizenship.  We  can 
never  have  a  real  policy  of  dealing  with 
our  immigrant  people,  from  the  time  they 


NATIONAL  UNITY  185 

arrive  until  they  become  citizens,  so  long 
as  officials  remain  as  they  are,  unless  the 
administration  of  existing  laws,  the  draft- 
ing of  new  laws,  gathering  of  necessary 
information,  and  formulation  of  broad 
policies,  rest  with  some  one  department. 
Somehow  we  must  treat  this  matter  as 
a  citizenship  and  not  as  a  labor  matter. 
It  is  useless  to  preach  to  the  employer 
that  he  cease  to  regard  the  immigrant  as 
a  cog  in  his  machinery  when  the  govern- 
ment puts  this  stamp  upon  him  when  it 
admits  him.  We  now  have  a  proba- 
tionary period  of  five  years  for  citizen- 
ship. We  can  well  use  that  as  the  period 
for  applying  our  immigration  policy  which 
shall  begin  with  his  admission,  exclusion, 
and  deportation  within  that  period  —  the 
deportation  clause  being  extended  to  con- 
form to  the  citizenship  standard. 

What  does  Americanization  mean  in 
national  defense? 

It  means  putting  the  American  flag 
above  all  others,  abolishing  dual  citizen- 
ship, and  pledging  open  allegiance  to 
America. 

It  means  American  citizenship  for  every 
alien  within  our  borders,  or  deportation 


186  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

and  closing  our  doors  to  political  scouts 
and  birds  of  passage.  We  can  no  longer 
endure  as  a  "polyglot  boarding  house." 
Citizenship  will  give  us  an  intelligent 
body  of  voters,  for  it  will  mark  the  end  of 
the  "voting  the  hunkies"  by  ward  bosses. 
This  desecration  of  American  citizenship 
cannot  exist  side  by  side  with  an  aggres- 
sive effort  on  the  part  of  the  public 
schools  of  the  country  to  instruct  the 
foreign  born,  adults  as  well  as  children, 
in  the  real  meaning  of  citizenship.  It 
means,  finally,  economic  stability.  The 
thousands  of  immigrants  that  become 
"birds  of  passage"  and  return  to  their 
own  country  because  they  have  never 
been  able  to  make  any  American  contact 
except  through  their  pay  envelope  will 
be  enabled  really  to  settle  their  homes, 
their  affections,  and  their  earnings  in 
America,  increasing  the  prosperity  of  the 
immigrant  family  here,  cementing  its 
bonds  with  this  country,  and  also  con- 
tributing to  the  prestige  and  prosperity 
of  the  American  nation. 

It  means  one  language  for  all  America 
and  the  elimination  of  illiteracy.  Confu- 
sion of  tongues  and  ignorance  of  Ameri- 


NATIONAL   UNITY  187 

can  institutions  and  opportunities  are  foes 
of  efficient  preparedness.  This  means  the 
end  of  "Little  Italys,"  "Little  Hun- 
garies, "  and  the  end  of  filthy,  remote  for- 
eign villages  on  the  outskirts  of  our  towns 
and  cities,  inhabited  by  foreign-speaking 
men  and  women  with  no  way  of  learning 
American  standards  of  living  and  Ameri- 
can customs,  and  with  no  way  to  protest 
against  standards  of  living  which  in  many 
cases  they  do  not  "lower"  at  all,  but 
which  they  accept  only  because  they  are 
too  ignorant  to  protest  when  the  condi- 
tions are  forced  upon  them.  There  are 
to-day  thousands  of  communities  where 
decent  living  conditions  do  not  and  can- 
not prevail.  Our  war  contracts  are 
starting  boom  towns  that  are  a  menace 
to  our  very  civilization  and  a  source  of 
danger  in  time  of  war.  It  means  a  higher 
level  of  intelligence,  the  wiping  out  of 
illiteracy,  and  the  establishment  of  the 
rule  of  the  English  language  and  of  a 
common  citizenship. 

It  means  the  abolition  of  class  prejudices 
and  of  racial  hatreds  and  of  the  intolerance 
of  the  old  stock  for  new  stock,  which 
stand  in  the  way  of  United  America. 


188  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

It  means  one  American  standard  of 
living.  As  we  cannot  have  a  double 
standard  of  jmorality,  we  cannot  have  a 
Double  standard  of  living.  We  can  no 
longer  sacrifice  the  preservation  of  this 
country  to  industrial  necessities.  So  long 
as  our  industrial  communities  are  made 
up  of  large  groups  of  un-Americanized 
immigrants,  without  the  English  lan- 
guage, without  an  understanding  of 
American  conditions,  too  helpless  to  bring 
their  grievances  to  the  attention  of  their 
employers,  too  ignorant  to  understand  or 
trust  compromises,  if  compromises  are 
offered,  too  ignorant  to  force  them  in 
legitimate  ways  if  they  are  not  offered, 
able  to  understand  only  the  radical  agita- 
tors addressing  them  in  their  own  lan- 
guage —  just  so  long  will  the  industrial 
history  of  America  be  blotted  by  Ludlows, 
Lawrences,  and  Wheatlands.  The  road 
to  American  citizenship,  to  the  English 
language,  and  an  understanding  of  Ameri- 
can social  and  political  ideals  is  the  road 
to  industrial  peace. 

It  means  the  Americanization  of  women. 
Now  women  automatically  become  citi- 
zens with  their  fathers  and  husbands,  al- 


NATIONAL  UNITY  189 

though  in  some  states  they  vote.  The 
best  Americanization  agency  is  the  home. 
We  can  only  reach  foreign-born  women  in 
their  homes,  and  we  must  go  to  them. 
They  are  now  isolated,  forgotten,  ignored, 
and  constitute  the  greatest  single  back- 
ward factor  in  the  progress  of  citizenship 
among  women. 

It  means,  lastly,  not  America  first  ana 
safety  first,  which  are  sectional  and  selfish 
banners  under  which  no  man  can  fight 
his  best,  but  liberty, ,  justice.,  honor,  and 
rightjSrst. 

This  is  no  small  task.  The  figures  for 
1910  tell  us  that  America  has  about 
thirty-three  million  foreign-born  people 
and  persons  of  foreign-born  parentage. 
One  third  have,  therefore,  in  our  im- 
mediate environment  foreign  traditions 
and  standards.  The  problem  is  to  keep 
the  best  of  these  and  make  them  serve 
America.  No  nation  in  the  civilized 
world  would  think  itself  "prepared"  with 
such  an  internal  situation,  and  yet  we 
officially  ignore  it. 

These  intricate,  delicate,  interlocking 
questions,  mostly  unsolved  in  any  national 
way,  are  found  in  education,  savings  and 


190  STRAIGHT   AMERICA 

investments,  standards  of  living,  and  in 
all  of  the  other  fields  before  us.  They 
are  as  important  and  as  difficult  as  those 
we  are  solving  in  military  defenses  and 
industrial  mobilization.  They  are  the 
problems  of  nationalism  —  the  things 
that  make  the  immigrant  man  a  good 
citizen,  workman,  or  soldier.  They  must 
be  considered  in  any  movement  for  a 
unified  America.  They  have  always  been 
approached  by  our  government  from 
some  sectional,  local,  or  isolated  point  of 
view.  They  have  never  been  approached 
from  the  national  point  of  view.  The  42 
volumes  of  the  Federal  Immigration  Com- 
mission are  silent  on  a  national  policy 
other  than  the  negative  one  of  exclusion. 
They  deal  exhaustively  with  conditions 
in  industry,  in  philanthropy,  but  nowhere 
do  they  lead  us  to  a  policy  of  a  program 
for  America  that  meets  its  present 
requirements. 

We  shall  never  attain  this  united 
America  back  of  our  firing  line,  in  our 
shops,  in  our  cities,  in  our  schools,  on  our 
great  arteries  of  communications  and 
supply,  by  the  most  intelligent  policy, 
by  the  wisest  of  laws,  by  the  fairest  en- 


NATIONAL   UNITY  191 

forcement  of  law,  unless  each  and  every 
American  resident  does  his  share  —  and 
realizes  that  a  prepared  America  at  every 
point  comes  back  to  him  and  to  him 
alone. 

We  shall  not  accomplish  preparedness 
through  Americanization  without  organi- 
zation. We  have  the  beginnings  of  many 
excellent  movements  of  Americanization, 
in  much  the  same  state  as  our  army  and 
navy.  Each  bureau  interested  in  some 
phase  of  the  subjects  carries  on  its  work, 
drafts  bills,  and  enforces  laws.  We  are 
as  wholly  lacking  in  policy,  program, 
and  leadership  as  in  any  other  phase 
of  preparedness.  We  do  not  yet  recog- 
nize as  a  nation  that  Americanization 
is  fundamental  preparedness  and  should 
be  vitally  related  to  military  and  in- 
dustrial preparedness  and  to  universal 
service. 

No  policy  of  preparedness  can  be  com- 
plete without  a  strong  sense  of  inter- 
national duty  and  a  willingness  to  defend 
it  as  loyally  as  American  institutions. 
We  are  emerging  from  the  haze  of  what 
we  should  have  done  to  preserve  inter- 
national law.  We  have  before  us  some 


192  STRAIGHT  AMERICA 

pertinent  problems  which  will  test  this 
new-found  honor. 

We  owe  it  to  ourselves,  in  our  new 
treaties  and  new  relations  arising  after 
the  war,  to  have  a  thorough  understand- 
ing in  regard  to  citizenship  so  the  protec- 
tion of  the  American  flag  will  follow  every 
citizen,  native  and  foreign  born,  to  every 
country  in  the  world  under  whatever 
conditions. 

We  owe  it  to  the  people  who  come  to 
our  shores  asking  admission  that  all  of 
the  regulations  of  aliens  should  be  in  our 
national  admission  law  and  not  hidden  in 
state  and  local  laws  preventing  their  earn- 
ing a  living  and  becoming  good  citizens. 
This  whole  law  should  be  based  upon 
America's  welfare  and  capacity  for  making 
these  men  and  women  good  citizens.  We 
do  not  want  them  unless  they  are  willing 
to  join  with  us  for  defense  of  American 
liberty. 

When  we  have  a  common  policy  which 
all  America  understands  and  believes ;  a 
program  to  which  every  American  can 
give  efficient  and  loyal  service;  and 
leaders  that  Americans  can  and  will 
follow,  then  we  shall  be  a  prepared  nation, 


NATIONAL   UNITY  193 

—  standing  again  as  we  stood  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  years  ago:  for  justice 
and  right  and  liberty. 

"  And  in  support  of  these  truths 
we  mutually  pledge  to  each  other 
our  lives,   our  fortunes   and  our  sacred 
honor." 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


'T^HE  following  pages  contain  advertisements  of  a 
few  of  the  Macmillan  books  on  kindred  subjects 


OUR  NATIONAL  PROBLEMS 


Americanization 

BY  ROYAL  DIXON 


What  are  we  doing  to  Americanize 
the  alien  ?  How  can  we  make  sure 
that  he  will  emerge  from  the  melting- 
pot  willing  to  support  and  to  contrib- 
ute to  our  institutions  ?  These  are  the 
questions  which  Mr.  Dixon  asks  and 
to  which  he  offers  a  clear  and  simple 
answer,  broad  and  practical  in  vision. 
His  suggestions  are  more  than  merely 
constructively  patriotic  —  they  are  stir- 
ringly hopeful. 


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OUR  NATIONAL  PROBLEMS 


The  Heritage  of  Tyre 

BY  WILLIAM  BROWN  MELONEY 

$o.jo 

The  first,  direct,  uncompromising 
demand  for  a  new  American  mercan- 
tile marine.  Mr.  Meloney  points  out 
the  opportunity  that  is  now  ours,  the 
opportunity  to  recover  our  lost  sea 
prestige  and  to  set  our  flag  waving 
again  in  every  great  port  of  the  world. 
Not  only  is  this  merchant  marine 
needed  by  our  commerce — it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  and  indispensable  to 
the  support  of  a  truly  adequate  navy. 
The  United  States  must  be  a  vassal 
on  the  seas  no  longer. 


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OUR  NATIONAL  PROBLEMS 


Their  True  Faith  and  Allegiance 

BY  GUSTAVUS  OHLINGER 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY  OWEN  WISTBR 

$0.30 

A  fair,  impartial  discussion  of  Ger- 
man propaganda  in  America  describ- 
ing the  methods  in  use  and  the  results 
achieved. 

"  For  the  sake  of  the  facts  that  it 
gathers,  this  book  should  be  read  not 
once,  but  two  or  three  times,  by  all 
Americans  who  believe  in  Union,  in 
Lincoln,  and  in  Liberty  —  worth  keep- 
ing in  mind  and  dwelling  upon,  not 
merely  to-day,  but  during  many  to-mor- 
rows. It  bears  upon  the  future  of  our 
national  health/' — Owen  Wister. 


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Publishers         64-66  Fifth  Avenue         New  York 


OUR  NATIONAL  PROBLEMS 


The  Forks  of  the  Road 

BY  WASHINGTON  GLADDEN 

$0.50 

Awarded  the  prize  offered  by  the 
Church  Peace  Union  for  the  best  essay 
on  war  and  peace. 

A  powerful  indictment  of  war  which 
calls  upon  the  political  and  religious 
forces  of  our  country  to  give  up  pre- 
paredness programs  and  to  follow  a 
policy  that  will  make  for  the  preva- 
lence of  peace.  Never  has  Dr.  Glad- 
den written  with  such  fervor  and  in- 
spiration ;  his  book  goes  straight  to 
the  heart  of  our  national  problem ; 
without  cant  or  sentimentalism,  he 
shows  the  course  true  Americanism 
must  take. 

"A  wise  and  noble  essay. "  —  Independent. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers       64-66  Fifth  Avenue       New  York 


OUR  NATIONAL  PROBLEMS 

"  Not  since  Mercier,  Archbishop  of  Malines,  gave  his  now 
famous  pastoral  letter  to  the  world  has  more  eloquence  and 
truth  been  compressed  into  so  small  a  space." 


The  Pentecost  of  Calamity 

BY  OWEN  WISTER 

Boards,  $.50 

"  One  of  the  most  striking  and  moving  utterances. . . . 
Let  all  Americans  read  it."  —  The  Congregationalist. 

"  It  is  written  with  sustained  charm  and  freshness  of 
insight."  —  New  York  Times, 

"  It  is  a  flaming  thing,  itself  a  tongue  of  Pentecost."  — 
Boston  Advertiser. 

"  Mr.  Wister's  artistic  power  at  its  best."  —  Phila- 
delphia Ledger. 

"  A  strong  book  which  sets  out  to  be  just  a  passionate 
plea  to  America  to  find  its  own  soul."  —  Rabbi  Stephen 
S.  Wise. 

11  In  '  The  Pentecost  of  Calamity '  Owen  Wister  sees 
and  speaks  as  a  prophet.  With  rare  spiritual  insight 
and  sympathy  he  penetrates  to  the  real  meaning  of  the 
world  tragedy  under  whose  shadow  we  are  living.  I 
am  glad  we  have  an  American  writer  able  to  speak  the 
voiceless  longing  of  an  awakened  world."  — Rev.  Charles 
A.  Eaton,  Pastor  of  the  Madison  Avenue  Baptist  Church. 


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Publishers         64-66  Fifth  Avenue         New  York 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY—TEL  NO.  642-3405 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


